Yellowknife Bay, Mars created by the presence of liquid water, suggesting the presence of an ancient lake which could have sustained microbial life. The geologic depression takes its name from the city Yellowknife, capital of the Canadian Northwest Territories, in honor of the 4 billion year old rock in the region surrounding the city, which matches the approximate age of the uncovered rock in Gale Crater. Yellowknife Bay is a 5-meter geologic depression located in the large impact crater known as Gale Crater. The Crater is located on Mars near the northwestern part of the Aeolis quadrangle just south of the planet's equator.
Yellowknife Yellowknife began with the discovery of diamonds north of the city in 1991. The last of the gold mines in Yellowknife closed in 2004. Today, Yellowknife is primarily a government town and a service centre for the diamond mines. On April 1, 1999, its purview as capital of the NWT was reduced when the territory of Nunavut was split from the NWT. As a result, jurisdiction for that region of Canada was transferred to the new capital city of Iqaluit. Consequently, Yellowknife lost its standing as the Canadian capital city with the smallest population. Yellowknife is on the Canadian Shield,