HR: 0800h
AN: P51D-0946 [Abstracts]
TI: Chemical Characterization of the Soil Organic Matter in the Atacama Desert, Chile
AU: * Iñiguez, E
EM: iniguez@nucleares.unam.mx
AF: Laboratorio de Química de Plasmas y Estudios Planetarios, Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacan, Mexico City, 04510
Mexico
AU: Navarro-González, R
EM: navarro@nucleares.unam.mx
AF: Laboratorio de Química de Plasmas y Estudios Planetarios, Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacan, Mexico City, 04510
Mexico
AU: Miranda, L D
EM: lmiranda@servidor.unam.mx
AF: Instituto de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad
Universitaria, Coyoacan, Mexico City, 04510
Mexico
AU: McKay, C
EM: cmckay@mail.arc.nasa.gov
AF: Space Science Division, NASA-Ames Research Center, NASA-Ames Research Center, Space Science Division,
Moffett Field, CA 94035
United States
AB:
The arid core region of the Atacama Desert located in Yungay, Chile contains Mars-like soils that have undetectable bacterial
populations, low organic concentrations, and the presence of a non-chirally specific oxidant (Navarro-Gonz lez, et al.,
2003, Science 302, 1018-1021). The level of organics in these soils would be undetectable by pyr-GC-MS at Viking
temperatures (200-500°C) but detectable at higher temperatures (750°C). The chemical characterization of organics
in these soils is relevant for the development of new methodologies for the search of organics in the Martian surface.
Consequently we have extracted the organics from the soil matrix using organic solvents in a Soxhlet apparatus, and analyzed
the dry residue by different analytical techniques such as 1H-NMR, FTIR, GC-MS, and pyr-GC-MS. Our preliminary results
indicate that the organics present in the soil of the core region of the Atacama Desert are composed of polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons, cyclic aliphatic chains, and different carboxylic and amino groups.
DE: 5200 PLANETARY SCIENCES: ASTROBIOLOGY
DE: 6225 Mars
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005