HR: 09:15h
AN: P41D-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Mars-Relevant Environmental Conditions at the Lakes of Licancabur Volcano, Bolivia
AU: * Hock, A N
EM: ahock@ucla.edu
AF: University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Earth and Space Sciences 595 Charles E. Young Dr. E., Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 United States
AU: Cabrol, N A
P41D-06 AF: NASA Ames Research Center, Space Science Division MS 245-3, Moffett Field, CA 94035 United States
AU: Grin, E A
P41D-06 AF: NASA Ames Research Center, Space Science Division MS 245-3, Moffett Field, CA 94035 United States
AU: Kovacs, G T
P41D-06 AF: Stanford University, Department of Electrical Engineering CIS 202-X Mailcode: 4075, Stanford, CA 94035-4075 United States
AU: Rothschild, L J
P41D-06 AF: NASA Ames Research Center, Ecosystem Science and Technology Branch MS 239-20, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AU: Parazynski, S E
P41D-06 AF: NASA Johnson Space Center, Astronaut Office Mail Code CB 2101 NASA Road 1, Houston, TX 77058-3696 United States
AU: Prufert-Bebout, L
P41D-06 AF: NASA Ames Research Center, Exobiology Branch MS 239-4, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 United States
AB: In the Bolivian Altiplano, a number of environmental variables combine to produce some of the most exotic and poorly understood lacustrine environments on Earth. In a cold, arid environment with extreme ultraviolet flux, these lakes provide a habitat for biology and a proxy for the study of potentially analogous martian environments. Here, we present new data on the physical, chemical environment of three such lakes at Licancabur Volcano, Bolivia and explore the quantitative basis for an analogy to Mars. Licancabur (22°50`'S, 67°53`'W) is a large, dormant volcano on the western edge of the Bolivian Altiplano at the border with Chile. Two hypersaline lakes, Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde, are located at the volcano`'s 4300 m base. Within the past thirty years, these two were connected as a single reservoir, but local climate-driven evaporation (precipitation <100 mm/y, evaporation >1000 mm/y) has resulted in two topographically and chemically distinct bodies connected by a small stream. At nearly 6000 m, the small crater lake of Licancabur is one of the highest known and least explored on Earth. While sub-freezing average air temperature and extreme ultraviolet flux create an environment similar to the surface of Mars, the lake harbors a small biological community and is ice-covered only part of the year.
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0426, 1610)
DE: 0406 Astrobiology and extraterrestrial materials
DE: 4825 Geochemistry
DE: 5200 PLANETARY SCIENCES: ASTROBIOLOGY
DE: 6225 Mars
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005