Ethical considerations for analogue fieldwork in extreme environments

A Marino, F Franchi, L Lebogang, FJ Gomez… - Nature …, 2023 - nature.com
Recent movements towards decolonizing the university and promoting racial justice and
equality in social relations have highlighted and challenged the colonial influences on …

The astrobiological potential of the Makgadikgadi Basin, Botswana: Field analogue for planetary exploration

TH Kahsay, A Asrat, F Franchi - Planetary and Space Science, 2024 - Elsevier
Terrestrial analogue sites have been crucial for studying Martian geology and mineralogy,
integrating the direct evidence available from Mars through remote sensing and in situ …

Geomorphology of the Makgadikgadi Basin (Botswana): Insight Into the Propagation of the East African Rift System

L Gaudaré, O Dauteuil, M Jolivet - Tectonics, 2024 - Wiley Online Library
Abstract The Southwestern Branch of the East African Rift System propagates through the
Central and Southern African plateaus and ends in the Okavango Makgadikgadi Zambezi …

[HTML][HTML] Microbial abundance across a salinity and mineralogical transect in the Ntwetwe Pan of Botswana: A terrestrial analogue for playa deposits on Mars

F Franchi, A Cassaro, B Cavalazzi, L Lebogang… - Planetary and Space …, 2025 - Elsevier
The current conditions of the Martian surface are considered prohibitive for life as we know
it, due to strong radiation, highly oxidizing conditions, concentrated evaporative salts …

Structural influences on groundwater circulation in the Makgadikgadi salt pans of Botswana? Implications for martian playa environments

G Schmidt, E Luzzi, F Franchi, AT Selepeng… - Frontiers in Astronomy …, 2023 - frontiersin.org
Across the surface of Mars, evidence of past lacustrine and evaporitic environments has
been found within basins and craters, where often layered sedimentary deposits and …

Fault controlled geometries by inherited tectonic texture at the southern end of the East African Rift System in the Makgadikgadi Basin, northeastern Botswana

G Schmidt, F Franchi, F Salvini, AT Selepeng, E Luzzi… - Tectonophysics, 2023 - Elsevier
One of the three narrow rift belts that mark the southern end of the East African Rift System
(EARS) intersects the Makgadikgadi Basin of northeastern Botswana. Although tectonic …

Diversity of Microbial Mats in the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, Botswana

S Filippidou, A Price, C Spencer-Jones, A Scales… - Microorganisms, 2024 - mdpi.com
The Makgadikgadi Salt Pans are the remnants of a mega paleo-lake system in the central
Kalahari, Botswana. Today, the Makgadikgadi Basin is an arid to semi-arid area receiving …

[HTML][HTML] Using the Perseverance MEDA-RDS to identify and track dust devils and dust-lifting gust fronts

D Toledo, V Apéstigue, J Martinez-Oter… - Frontiers in Astronomy …, 2023 - frontiersin.org
In the framework of the Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure Transnational Access
programme, a terrestrial field campaign was conducted from 29 September to 6 October …

Biodiversity of non-marine Ostracoda (Crustacea) of Botswana: an annotated checklist with notes on distribution

A Szwarc, T Namiotko - Water, 2022 - mdpi.com
Botswana constitutes a major gap in our knowledge of the distribution of Ostracoda in the
region of Southern Africa, restraining thorough biogeographic interpretations. We combine …

Diversity of inland playas and aspects of marginal calcium carbonate landform formation

S Ringrose, L Cassidy - Scottish Geographical Journal, 2024 - Taylor & Francis
This work firstly presents a newly compiled literature-based database of global playas (Part
1) and later reviews geomorphological aspects of lake margin calcium carbonate (CaCO3) …