WVUniverse presents "Salty Secrets about the Search for Life on Mars”

WVUniverse series presents "Salty Secrets about the Search for Life on Mars" featuring Kathleen Benison, PhD. Benison is a Professor of Geology at West Virginia University. 

All are welcome to join us for this talk on March 14, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. in G09 White Hall.

A few topics that Benison will discuss are extremophile microbe-containing acid salt lakes and how they serve as terrestrial analogs for Mars, the salt minerals on Mars and their potential to host biosignatures, and some specific samples with salt minerals that have been collected for Mars sample return by the Perseverance rover and the plan for studying them on Earth.

Benison's area of expertise includes understanding the systems interactions among lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere of modern and ancient acid saline lakes on Earth and Mars. This research involves fieldwork, petrography, fluid inclusion studies, sediment geochemistry, and laser Raman spectroscopy, much of it focused on salt minerals. 

She and her research students use field work, core descriptions, petrography, and fluid inclusion studies to decipher the deposition and diagenesis of continental red beds and evaporites, including roles of weather and climate, water geochemistry, and microbiology. Active research projects include modern acid saline lake systems in Western Australia and Chile, Permo-Triassic and Proterozoic analog deposits, and similar rocks on Mars.

WVUniverse is a series of public outreach talks exploring different scientific topics with an audience of all ages in mind. These talks are open to all and conclude with a fun trivia game with a chance to win prizes. No reservations are required. The talk is free and open to all ages.