Pacing early Mars river activity: Embedded craters in the Aeolis Dorsa region imply river activity spanned ≳(1-20) Myr

We find net sedimentation rate ≲(13-200) μm/yr in the Aeolis Dorsa region, Mars, using the frequency of crater-river interactions. This sets a lower bound of 1-20 Myr on the total interval spanned by fluvial activity, which we correlate to the Noachian-Hesperian transition. The main uncertainty is the impact flux at the time of deposition. This result rules out basin-filling by a single catastrophic episode, such as a single impact-induced water-vapor greenhouse.