Pariksha SaathiUniversity of Kerala team identifies Martian analogue minerals at Neyveli, the Tiruchirappalli Badlands and Chile's Atacama Desert
A University of Kerala team led by Dr Sajin Kumar K.S., project coordinator of the Department of Science and Technology's FIST programme at the university's Department of Geology, has identified two minerals that establish sites in Tamil Nadu and Chile as terrestrial analogues for Mars, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on 16 October 2026. Using a DST-FIST-supported laser Raman spectrometer, the team found melanterite at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu, and gypsum in the Atacama Desert in Chile and in the Tiruchirappalli Badlands, a semi-arid terrain in Tamil Nadu. Both are hydrous sulphates that record water-rock interaction: melanterite points to short-lived wet, acidic and oxidising conditions through sulphide oxidation, a process relevant to sulphate formation on Mars, while gypsum records past water activity and can preserve biosignatures. The findings were published as two papers in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, and the team now plans to study rare analogue sites in other extreme environments for astrobiology.
Drafted with AI assistance from the official PIB release linked above and checked against it by a second AI pass. Not line-edited by a human.
Learning context
Raman spectroscopy, the technique behind the laser Raman spectrometer used here, is named after Sir C. V. Raman. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1930 was awarded to Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman alone “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him”.
Reference: NobelPrize.org, the Nobel Prize in Physics 1930
Check yourself: which of the two minerals can preserve biosignatures, according to the release?
Gypsum. The release says gypsum records past aqueous activity and can preserve biosignatures within its mineral matrix, while melanterite points to short-lived wet, acidic and oxidising conditions.
Revision task: from this release, note which mineral was found where, the instrument and the journal, and keep them apart from the standing fact about Raman above.
Test yourself
Which mineral did the University of Kerala team identify at Neyveli, Tamil Nadu, as a Martian analogue?
Show the answer
Answer: Melanterite
The team found melanterite at Neyveli; gypsum was identified in the Atacama Desert and the Tiruchirappalli Badlands. Both are hydrous sulphates that record water-rock interaction.
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