HR: 09:00h
AN: P41D-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Can the Combination of Extremes Protect Life: Clues from Altiplanic Lakes and Implication for Early Mars
AU: * Cabrol, N A
EM: ncabrol@mail.arc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Ames / SETI Institute, Space Science Division MS 245-3, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AU: Hock, A N
EM: ahock@ucla.edu
AF: UCLA, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 United States
AU: Grin, E A
EM: egrin@maill.arc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Ames / SETI Institute, Space Science Division MS 245-3, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AU: Kovacs, G
EM: kovacs@cis.stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Department of Electrical Engineering, Mail Code 4075, Stanford, CA 94305-4075 United States
AU: Parazynski, S
EM: scott.e.parazynski@nasa.gov
AF: NASA JSC, Astronaut Office Mail Code CB, Houston, TX 77058-3696 United States
AB: The impact of individual extremes on life, such as UV radiation (UVR), temperatures, and salinity is well documented. However, their combined effect in nature is not well-understood while it is a fundamental issue controlling the evolution of the Habitable Zone (HZ) and that of the aqueous Habitable Zone (aHZ) within individual bodies of water on Earth. It is also central to the understanding of lakes habitability on Mars as the climate conditions declined 3.5 billion years ago. Environmental variables combine in the Bolivian altiplano to produce some of the highest, least explored and most poorly understood lakes on Earth. The geophysical data we collected on four of them located between 4,500 m and 6,014 m shows that many of these conditions bear similarity to environments thought to have existed and potentially supported life on ancient Mars. Their study suggests that a combination of extreme factors does not necessarily translate into a harsher environment for life and that habitability in martian lakes might have endured well into the climate change of the Noachian/Hesperian transition.
DE: 0456 Life in extreme environments
DE: 5200 PLANETARY SCIENCES: ASTROBIOLOGY
DE: 5225 Early environment of Earth
DE: 6225 Mars
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005