An international group of scientists has identified organic compounds and evidence of interaction between volcanic rocks and liquid lake water, characteristics of hydrothermal activity, in Martian rocks from the bottom of the Ezer crater.

Around 3.7 billion years ago, during the Noachian period, the Ezer crater contained a lake with an open water basin and a river delta where clay and carbonate-bearing deposits accumulated. These deposits have been preserved to this day and planetologists suspected that they may contain organic substances.