Present day Mars habitability analogue environments on Earth: Difference between revisions

 

 

<youtube>IkBKZYzeobk</youtube>

 

 

Other analogues include regions of deep permafrost and high alpine regions with plants and microbes adapted to aridity, cold and UV radiation with similarities to Mars conditions.<ref name=PlanetaryAnalogues>{{cite web|last1=The Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, The Open University|title=TN2: The Catalogue of Planetary Analogues|url=http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/gsp/The_Catalogue_of_Planetary_Analogues.pdf|publisher=Under ESA contract: 4000104716/11/NL/AF|date=5 December 2012}}</ref><ref name="PrestonDartnell2014">{{cite journal|url=http://lewisdartnell.com/en-gb/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/18-Preston-Dartnell2014_IJA.pdf|last1=Preston|first1=Louisa J.|last2=Dartnell|first2=Lewis R.|title=Planetary habitability: lessons learned from terrestrial analogues|journal=International Journal of Astrobiology|volume=13|issue=1|year=2014|pages=81–98|issn=1473-5504|doi=10.1017/S1473550413000396|bibcode=2014IJAsB..13...81P}}</ref>

{{Location map | Antarctica | width=220 | relief = DNIS | label = McMurdo Dry Valleys | lat_deg = -77.466667 | lon_deg = 162.516667 }}

[[File:Trek-browse.jpg|thumb|Researchers scout out field sites in Antarctica's Beacon Valley, one of the most Mars-like places on Earth. Image credit: NASA]]

These valleys lie on the edge of the Antarctic plateau. They are kept clear of ice and snow by fast [[katabatic wind]]s that blow from the plateau down through the valleys. As a result, they are amongst the coldest and driest areas in the world.

 

{{quote|"A martian soil survey in the Meridiani Planum region found minerals indicative of saline acidic brines. Therefore acidic cryosol/permafrost habitats may have once existed and are perhaps still extant on the martian surface. This site comprises a terrestrial analogue for these environments and hosts microbes capable of survival under these Mars-like conditions"<ref name=PlanetaryAnalogues/>}}

 

{{Location map | Spain

| width = 220

 

This makes it an excellent analogue of a Mars subsurface habitat.

 

== Permafrost soils, e.g. in Siberia ==

 

For photographs of ice fumaroles see "Ice Towers and Caves of Mount Erebus".<ref name=icefumarolephotos>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100423110657/http://erebus.nmt.edu/imagepages/icetowers/index.html "Ice Towers and Caves of Mount Erebus"], photographs from the Mount Erebus Observatory</ref> Similar habitats may possibly exist on Mars and the ice would make them hard to detect from orbit.

The caves on Erebus are of especial interest for astrobiology as most surface caves are influenced by human activities, or by organics from the surface brought in by animals (e.g. bats) or ground water. The caves at Erebus. are high altitude, yet accessible for study. There is almost no chance of photosynthetic based organics, or of animals in a food chain based on photosynthetic life, and no overlying soil to wash down into them.

 

[[Category:Environmental science]]

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