Dr. Patricia Craig

Areas of research that I find most interesting involve the geochemical evolution of planetary surfaces. My current work focuses on the formation and alteration of clay minerals on Mars. Additionally, I’ve begun a study that seeks to identify areas on Mars that were/are most conducive to the existence of life. Working with biologists at the University of Arkansas, our experiments have shown that methane-producing microbes, called methanongens, can grow and survive on certain clay minerals that have been identified on Mars. If methanogens are in fact still surviving on Mars, they could be responsible for the methane recently observed in the martian atmosphere.