The crater was named after Dean B. McLaughlin, an American astronomer (1901-1965).

[1][3] The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found evidence that the water came from beneath the surface between 3.7 billion and 4 billion years ago and remained long enough to make carbonate-related clay minerals found in layers.

[2][4] McLaughlin Crater, one of the deepest craters on Mars, contains Mg-Fe clays and carbonates that probably formed in a groundwater-fed alkaline lake.

This type of lake could have had a massive biosphere of microscopic organisms.

This article about an impact crater on Mars or its moons is a stub.