Much of my research revolves around understanding the geological history of Oxia Planum, the future landing site of the ExoMars Rover, Rosalind Franklin.
Oxia Planum is an extensive plain-forming region situated on the boundary between Mars' rugged, ancient southern highlands and the smoother, younger northern lowlands. Understanding how water interacted with rocks here is crucial because the ExoMars mission is fundamentally an astrobiological one: Rosalind Franklin will search for signs of past or present life both at the surface and in the shallow subsurface of Oxia Planum.
My work helps contextualise where, when, and in what conditions liquid water was present — painting a broader picture of the habitability of Oxia Planum's environments through time, and informing where the rover is most likely to find materials of astrobiological interest.
Oxia Planum is an extensive plain-forming region situated on the boundary between Mars' rugged, ancient southern highlands and the smoother, younger northern lowlands. Understanding how water interacted with rocks here is crucial because the ExoMars mission is fundamentally an astrobiological one: Rosalind Franklin will search for signs of past or present life both at the surface and in the shallow subsurface of Oxia Planum.
My work helps contextualise where, when, and in what conditions liquid water was present — painting a broader picture of the habitability of Oxia Planum's environments through time, and informing where the rover is most likely to find materials of astrobiological interest.
1. Mounds and Mesas: Burial and Exhumation of the Landing Site
The plains of Oxia Planum are punctuated by isolated hills, mounds, and mesas: remnants of older geological units that have been progressively buried and re-exposed over billions of years. This project investigated the origin and stratigraphic relationships of these features, establishing a geological timeline for the landing site and revealing that much of what the rover will encounter represents ancient, exhumed material once buried by hundreds of metres of rock.
2. Hydrated Silica: Astrobiological Treasure Troves
Deposits of hydrated silica (opal) within the Oxia Planum fan represent some of the most compelling evidence for past aqueous activity in the landing site. This project used a combination of multispectral and hyperspectral datasets and methods to characterise these deposits and investigate the environmental conditions under which they formed.
3. Mysterious Bright-Toned Outcrops (in progress)
In the southern portion of the landing site, a series of distinctive bright-toned outcrops stand up out of the surrounding terrain. This ongoing project is investigating their mineralogy and stratigraphic significance, using orbital spectral data to characterise their composition and understand how they fit into the broader geological history of the region. These outcrops may record a unique episode in Oxia Planum's aqueous history, and their proximity to the rover's traverse makes characterising them a priority.