LAKE SALDA, TURKEY (REUTERS) - As Nasa's rover Perseverance explores the surface of Mars, scientists hunting for signs of ancient life on the distant planet are using data gathered on a mission much closer to home, at a lake in south-west Turkey.

Nasa says the minerals and rock deposits at Salda are the nearest match on Earth to those around the Martian Jezero Crater where the spacecraft landed and which is believed to have once been flooded with water.