Researcher: Ancient Lake on Mars Has Similar Lake Sediments in South Sulawesi



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TRIBUNJOGJA.com – An article published in the GSA Bulletin in 2017 then revealed surprising information on the content of ancient lakes on Mars. In the report, it was reported that the ancient Mars Lakes were similar to the lake sediments of Towuti in southern Sulawesi.

Timothy A. Goudge, an expert from the University of Texas, said that Towuti Lake is ofiolite, consisting of rocks rich in iron and magnesium (mafic). This looks more like the surface of Mars than most Earth's land, which is usually more felsic or richer in silicon, aluminum, sodium, and so on.

Goudge and the team detailed the clay mineralogy of Towuti Lake, Indonesia, to find out.

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This complementary study also uses a technique called Near Infrared Spectroscopy (VNIR).

The spectral results of Lake Towuti show different variations of clay minerals over the past 40,000 years.

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The technique also records the response of the lake system to climate change, including lake level changes, artificial delta progression, and river slices.

According to Goudge, this shows that VNIR spectroscopy can be used to develop environmental recordings for tens of thousands of years.

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What is interesting about the study is that Goudge and the team also found that the old lacustrine deposits on Mars probably stored paleoenvironmental information similar to that accessible through stratigraphic remote sensing studies and VNIR spectroscopy.

Goudge added that the makeup relationship between Lake Towuti and Lake Mars is not perfect. Therefore, Goudge puts more emphasis on the use of VNIR techniques.

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Goudge added that they could distinguish various materials with colors, such as rust with red because they contained iron. Thus, VNIR spectroscopy allows humans to determine the minerals present in lake sediment samples.

The technique is indeed relatively new to be practiced against lake deposits on Earth. Nevertheless, this technique can operate at a great distance using only reflected light from the sun. Therefore, the technique can be used to study mineralogy and surface composition on other planetary bodies, including Mars.

"Our research shows that it is possible to use VNIR spectroscopy to understand the climatic evolution recorded by lake sediments .That is why we propose to apply the same approach to the study of sediments of ancient lakes on Mars at high resolution, which will help reveal the history of the climate. Ancient Mars, "said Goudge. (*)

This article was broadcast on NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC under the title "Mars has an ancient lake similar to South Sulawesi Lake"

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