It has been analogized to similar double-layered ejecta blankets on Earth, including that of the Ries impact structure, which was where the conceptual model for how such craters formed was first advanced.

Clay-bearing materials, carbonate minerals (magnesite), and serpentine were also associated with the Hargraves ejecta apron, implying either syn- or post-impact non-acidic aqueous alteration, the latter case possibly involving hydrothermal activity.

[6] Final downselection of the rover landing sites eventually favored nearby Jezero crater over the Nili Fossae candidate.

[2] The younger, overlying ejecta unit (termed He2 by Sacks and co-authors[2]) has been interpreted as a melt-bearing impactite akin to the suevite layer at the Ries structure.

Transverse aeolian ridges predominate in a NNW-SSE orientation atop the older ejecta unit (interpreted as a lithic impact breccia), implying the presence of a longstanding prevailing wind.

[3] Hargraves has been noted as a possible heat source for melted subsurface ice in this region, which may have fed the fluvial activity linked to the filling of the Jezero impact structure.

[3][4][5] In 2019, Al Emran, Luke Marzen, and David King (Auburn University) presented an abstract to the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference reporting the results of an object-based image analysis of an erg within the Hargraves impact structure.

In 2021, Leah Sacks, Livio Tornabene, Gordon Osinski, and Racel Sapoco (University of Western Ontario) published a detailed geologic map of Hargraves Crater.