A company specializing in deep drilling has been selected to carry out a perforation of up to 500 meters in the Sierra de Gádor, Almería. This project, driven by the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA), aims to unearth traces of a potential large-scale geological impact that occurred millions of years ago.

The primary objective of this initiative is to extract rock samples that can provide information about geological structures comparable to those observed on Mars. Researchers hope that deep layers of the earth will preserve signs of this event, which would have disappeared from the surface due to erosion and the passage of time.

The investigation will allow for the study of how these types of structures evolve in different planetary environments. The information obtained in Almería could be complemented in the future by data from the European ExoMars mission, scheduled for launch in 2028, which will also perform subsurface drilling on Mars.

The University of Almería (UAL) is one of the institutions linked to this scientific project, which seeks to understand the origin and evolution of this large geological structure in the province. The awarded company, based in Madrid, will complete the work within 60 days and with a budget of 86,031 euros.