Indian scientists identify Martian analogue sites

Dr. Sajin Kumar was engaged in fieldwork in the Atacama. The white stripes in the picture are plaster. | Photo credit: Special arrangement

Researchers from Kerala have identified two key minerals in parts of Tamil Nadu and the Atacama Desert in Chile that reflect geological, chemical and physical similarities to Mars and have helped establish these areas as analogous sites on Mars.

A research team from the University of Kerala, led by Sajin Kumar KS, Associate Professor, Department of Geology, and project coordinator, DST-FIST, identified melanterite in Neyveli, Tamil Nadu and gypsum in the Atacama Desert and Tiruchirappalli Badlands, a semi-arid geological and paleoclimatic terrain in Tamil.

Both minerals are hydrous sulfates that record water-rock interactions. While gypsum preserves evidence of past aqueous environments, melanterite indicates short-term wet, acidic, and oxidizing conditions. These processes are relevant to processes derived on Mars. These terrestrial minerals therefore provide useful analogs for understanding past water activity and potentially habitable environments on Mars, the researchers note.

They added that the identification of Earth analogue sites has become an urgent requirement in an era of intense planetary exploration, as recent studies have shown that orbital data alone cannot fully characterize Martian minerals. Such investigations require highly accurate and state-of-the-art analytical tools.

Advanced instrumentation including a laser Raman spectrometer was used for identification. A spectrometer supported by DST-FIST (Fond for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure in Universities and Higher Educational Institutions) was used to detect characteristic spectral fingerprints of minerals and confirm their identification.

The findings were published as two research papers in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, a leading journal in planetary science.

According to the study, such findings are considered essential to the development of planetary science by improving human understanding of past habitable environments on Mars and other planetary bodies. Identifying minerals capable of recording water activity and preserving biological signatures may also help direct future planetary missions toward the most promising locations in the search for evidence of life beyond Earth.

The team is now targeting rare analogue sites in extreme conditions in different parts of the world to understand primitive life for astrobiological studies using the same equipment.

Published – 20 October 2026 18:16 IST