Gusev Crater, A Mythical Crater-Lake on the Martian Surface

摘要

Gusev crater, located at the Ma'adim Vallis terminus, has always drawn the attention of Mars experts as an impact crater-lake. On January 3, 2004, Mars Rover Spirit landed on Mars, too, in order to access potential lake sediments at the bottom of this crater. Nevertheless, the geological evidence as well as the rudimentary findings of this rover indicate that, in this impact crater, there has never been any big impact crater-lake. Furthermore, the comparison of this crater with similar ones, such as Holden crater, signifies that this crater was formed in the late Martian fluvial outflow era which had the outflow channels emerged. Even though, due to the collision of two small asteroids with the southern rim of the crater, an outlet was created in its southern section, merely a meager volume of sedimentary deposits accumulated in the crater's southern zone, and this can, apparently, be due to the non-existence of extensive diluvial flows.