Turkey's Lake Salda is the only place on the planet that can be compared to an ancient impact feature on Mars. (Image credit: temizyurek/Getty Images)
Lake Salda is a body of water in Turkey that bears a striking resemblance to Mars’ Jezero Crater. This stunning lake is the only one on Earth whose geology and mineralogy can be compared to that of an ancient impact structure on the Red Planet. This striking similarity has attracted the attention of scientists, who began exploring its shores even before the Perseverance rover landed on Mars in 2021.
Lake Salda is one of Turkey’s deepest bodies of water, with a maximum depth of 196 meters (643 feet). Its shores are covered with powdery hydromagnesite, a magnesium-rich carbonate mineral that is found in caves and along the shores of some lakes. This mineral, notably, contains clues to ancient microbial life.
“Carbonates are important because they're excellent at preserving anything that existed in that environment, including microbes, organic matter, or certain textures that might indicate past microbial life,” said Brad Garczynski, a planetary geology researcher at Western Washington University and NASA's Earth Observatory.
The hydromagnesite on the shores of Lake Salda likely formed from microbialites, rock-like mounds that resemble coral reefs but are made of microbes. There are still intact microbialites in the lake, but they will eventually be recycled and turn into sand along the shoreline, according to NASA Earth Observatory.
Scientists using data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found similar minerals along the western rim of Jezero in 2019, indicating that the crater once held a lake. These observations were confirmed by the Perseverance rover, which found mineral evidence of a lake inside Jezero Crater billions of years ago.
Lake Salda and Jezero Crater have another thing in common: sedimentary features known as deltas. Deltas are layers of sediment that accumulate where rivers flow into lakes and other bodies of water. These features offer interesting clues about how water filled Jezero, and studying them in Lake Salda has helped scientists narrow down their search in the Martian crater.
The lake is being explored to search for traces of ancient life on the Red Planet.
“One of the most wonderful aspects of visiting Lake Salda is that it really allows you to understand what it was like to be on the shores of ancient Lake Jezero,” Horgan said.
According to CNN,
Sourse: www.livescience.com
