Volcanogenic Fluvial-lacustrine environments in Iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on Mars
The search for once-habitable locations on Mars is increasingly focused on environments dominated by fluvial and lacustrine processes, such as those investigated by the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover. The availability of liquid water coupled with the potential longevity of such systems rend...
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ftstandrewserep:oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/8199 2023-07-02T03:32:42+02:00 Volcanogenic Fluvial-lacustrine environments in Iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on Mars Cousins, Claire Rachel The Royal Society of Edinburgh University of St Andrews. Earth and Environmental Sciences 2016-02-11T11:10:07Z 19 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8199 https://doi.org/10.3390/life5010568 eng eng Life Cousins , C R 2015 , ' Volcanogenic Fluvial-lacustrine environments in Iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on Mars ' , Life , vol. 5 , no. 1 , pp. 568-586 . https://doi.org/10.3390/life5010568 2075-1729 PURE: 206015878 PURE UUID: 831af5e4-0810-4ce3-a4e8-4b008a0db939 Scopus: 84924295792 ORCID: /0000-0002-3954-8079/work/60196603 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8199 https://doi.org/10.3390/life5010568 © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license. Mars Lacustrine Fluvial Volcanism Habitability Iceland Astrobiology GE Environmental Sciences QC Physics QB Astronomy T-DAS GE QC QB Journal article 2016 ftstandrewserep https://doi.org/10.3390/life5010568 2023-06-13T18:27:50Z The search for once-habitable locations on Mars is increasingly focused on environments dominated by fluvial and lacustrine processes, such as those investigated by the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover. The availability of liquid water coupled with the potential longevity of such systems renders these localities prime targets for the future exploration of Martian biosignatures. Fluvial-lacustrine environments associated with basaltic volcanism are highly relevant to Mars, but their terrestrial counterparts have been largely overlooked as a field analogue. Such environments are common in Iceland, where basaltic volcanism interacts with glacial ice and surface snow to produce large volumes of meltwater within an otherwise cold and dry environment. This meltwater can be stored to create subglacial, englacial, and proglacial lakes, or be released as catastrophic floods and proglacial fluvial systems. Sedimentary deposits produced by the resulting fluvial-lacustrine activity are extensive, with lithologies dominated by basaltic minerals, low-temperature alteration assemblages (e.g., smectite clays, calcite), and amorphous, poorly crystalline phases (basaltic glass, palagonite, nanophase iron oxides). This paper reviews examples of these environments, including their sedimentary deposits and microbiology, within the context of utilising these localities for future Mars analogue studies and instrument testing. Publisher PDF Peer reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository Life 5 1 568 586 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftstandrewserep |
language |
English |
topic |
Mars Lacustrine Fluvial Volcanism Habitability Iceland Astrobiology GE Environmental Sciences QC Physics QB Astronomy T-DAS GE QC QB |
spellingShingle |
Mars Lacustrine Fluvial Volcanism Habitability Iceland Astrobiology GE Environmental Sciences QC Physics QB Astronomy T-DAS GE QC QB Cousins, Claire Rachel Volcanogenic Fluvial-lacustrine environments in Iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on Mars |
topic_facet |
Mars Lacustrine Fluvial Volcanism Habitability Iceland Astrobiology GE Environmental Sciences QC Physics QB Astronomy T-DAS GE QC QB |
description |
The search for once-habitable locations on Mars is increasingly focused on environments dominated by fluvial and lacustrine processes, such as those investigated by the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover. The availability of liquid water coupled with the potential longevity of such systems renders these localities prime targets for the future exploration of Martian biosignatures. Fluvial-lacustrine environments associated with basaltic volcanism are highly relevant to Mars, but their terrestrial counterparts have been largely overlooked as a field analogue. Such environments are common in Iceland, where basaltic volcanism interacts with glacial ice and surface snow to produce large volumes of meltwater within an otherwise cold and dry environment. This meltwater can be stored to create subglacial, englacial, and proglacial lakes, or be released as catastrophic floods and proglacial fluvial systems. Sedimentary deposits produced by the resulting fluvial-lacustrine activity are extensive, with lithologies dominated by basaltic minerals, low-temperature alteration assemblages (e.g., smectite clays, calcite), and amorphous, poorly crystalline phases (basaltic glass, palagonite, nanophase iron oxides). This paper reviews examples of these environments, including their sedimentary deposits and microbiology, within the context of utilising these localities for future Mars analogue studies and instrument testing. Publisher PDF Peer reviewed |
author2 |
The Royal Society of Edinburgh University of St Andrews. Earth and Environmental Sciences |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cousins, Claire Rachel |
author_facet |
Cousins, Claire Rachel |
author_sort |
Cousins, Claire Rachel |
title |
Volcanogenic Fluvial-lacustrine environments in Iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on Mars |
title_short |
Volcanogenic Fluvial-lacustrine environments in Iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on Mars |
title_full |
Volcanogenic Fluvial-lacustrine environments in Iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on Mars |
title_fullStr |
Volcanogenic Fluvial-lacustrine environments in Iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on Mars |
title_full_unstemmed |
Volcanogenic Fluvial-lacustrine environments in Iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on Mars |
title_sort |
volcanogenic fluvial-lacustrine environments in iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on mars |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8199 https://doi.org/10.3390/life5010568 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
Life Cousins , C R 2015 , ' Volcanogenic Fluvial-lacustrine environments in Iceland and their utility for identifying past habitability on Mars ' , Life , vol. 5 , no. 1 , pp. 568-586 . https://doi.org/10.3390/life5010568 2075-1729 PURE: 206015878 PURE UUID: 831af5e4-0810-4ce3-a4e8-4b008a0db939 Scopus: 84924295792 ORCID: /0000-0002-3954-8079/work/60196603 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8199 https://doi.org/10.3390/life5010568 |
op_rights |
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/life5010568 |
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