LAKE SALDA, Turkey (Reuters) – As NASA’s rover Perseverance explores the surface of Mars, scientists hunting for signs of ancient life on the distant planet are using data gathered on a mission much closer to home at a lake in southwest Turkey. Information gathered from Lake Salda may help the scientists as they search for fossilzsed traces of microbial life preserved in sediment thought to have been deposited around the delta and the long-vanished lake it once fed. Scientists believe that the sediments around the lake eroded from large mounds that are formed with the help of microbes and are known as microbialites. “When we find something at Perseverance we can go back to look at Lake Salda to really look at both processes, (looking at) similarities but equally importantly differences that are really between Perseverance and Lake Salda,” Zurbuchen said. “So we are really glad we have that lake, just because I think it will be with us for a long time”.

Source: Egypt Independent March 10, 2021 10:18 UTC