Flying to the crimson planet sometime could also be an inconceivable dream for tens of millions residing on planet Earth, but when it’s the mineralogy you are after, you may not have to go very far.
In truth, the placement which has the closest resemblance to Mars and its geological traits is Lake Salda in a spot dubbed the Turkish Maldives in southwestern Turkey’s Burdur province.
Sharing a satellite tv for pc picture from June eight of the crystal clear waters of the crater lake and its white sandy seashore, NASA stated the lake shared many similarities with the Jezera crater on Mars, particularly when it comes to geology and mineralogy.
What offers Salda’s shorelines that distinctive coloring is hydromagnesite, which scientists on the NASA Earth Observatory have stated shouldn’t be solely similar to the carbonate minerals noticed at Jezero however can be the one place on Earth to comprise them.
These hydromagnesite sediments in Lake Salda are believed to be eroded items from giant mounds referred to as “microbialites” surrounding the physique of water. These formations are thought to have been created by microbes that used the carbonate supplies in and across the crater to develop in dimension, in time main to giant terrace islands. Back in August 2019, analysis groups from Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) and Purdue University photographed and surveyed these islands to monitor microbial exercise.
This newfound similarity is necessary because it offers scientists the prospect to streamline their analysis on Mars and helps them decide which mineral deposits are most promising to go exploring.
What prompted this intriguing revelation was NASA’s $2.5 billion Perseverance rover, which is about to launch in the present day from Florida’s Cape Canaveral, to seek for indicators of historic microbial life on Mars, gather rock and soil samples and examine the planet’s local weather and geology.
“We’ve discovered that Mars has seasons and an environment that behaves in some ways similar to the Earth’s. Mars has geology that may be very harking back to what we see on Earth – volcanoes, river channels. Mars has polar caps. And the local weather has various by instances on many various time scales. Liquid water was plentiful early in its historical past,” stated Bruce Jakosky, a planetary scientist on the University of Colorado and the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft’s lead researcher, informed The Washington Post.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had beforehand discovered proof of seashores on the crimson planet after discovering carbonates on the sting of the Jezera crater.
Measuring 45 kilometers (28 miles) in width, the crater is “basically an affect crater inside an affect crater” and used to comprise a lake, which was established by the existence of delta deposits. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission hopes to discover proof of a hotter and wetter planet inside rocks on Jezera, confirming their principle {that a} river as soon as flowed into the crater.
