Mars analogs in the Amazon jungle

Upon reading that title, you're probably wondering how in the heck the Amazon jungle is anything like Mars. The answer is, not much. But strip away the top 50-100 meters of material near Carajas, Brazil, and you'll find a banded iron formation, or BIF for short. BIFs are iron- rich chemical sediments deposited in a deep water (oceanic) setting some 2.7 billion years ago. About 98% of the world's supply of iron comes from deposits like these. I just returned from a trip to Brazil to study these amazing deposits with a group of fellow scientists. Our group is headed by Dr. Simon Hook of the Jet Propulsion Lab. You can check out the project's web site here: http://analogs.jpl.nasa.gov/.

I spent nine exciting days in Brazil, and I'll give you a day-by-day account here in my blog.