Researchers have uncovered the geological events that created opal.
The formation of Australian opal was due to an extraordinary episode of acidic weathering, during the drying out of the central Australian landscape.
The study suggests the geology of Australia’s Red Centre is most similar on Earth to the geology of Mars.
The findings could yield valuable information on Mars for a fraction of the cost of a space mission as Central Australia offers a unique natural laboratory where potential Martian bio-geological processes could be studied.
Read more at University of Sydney