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A multidisciplinary study of silica sinter deposits with applications to silica identification and detection of fossil life on Mars

Research identified key spectral signatures of silica sinters (geyser deposits) by which these could be recognised on Mars as potential locales for microbial life. The paper was cited by the NASA Mars Exploration Rover team in their discovery of sinters on Mars (e.g. Skok et al., 2010, Nature Geoscience, doi:10.1038/ngeo990) and thus influenced exploration targets for the subsequent $287 million NASA Mars Odyssey mission. The paper was product of a PhD project supervised by Genge and resulted in a CPSX Fellowship at Western University, Canada for the lead author and Genge being appointed to the ESA Mars Aurora grants panel.