In search of "alien life" in a poly-extreme environment

• Main Author: Edwin Sia Sien Aun
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: Swinburne Commons 2017
• Subjects: Arctic; Svalbard; midnight sun
• Online Access: https://commons.swinburne.edu.au/items/27f9e3d7-799d-48b2-a506-d9ccb395bdce/1/

This photograph originally appeared in the 2017 Research student photography and image competition held to celebrate National Science Week (18 August - 8 September 2017). Blurb: This is a picture of me taking samples in an acid mine drainage passing through peat soils in the High Arctic (Svalbard) during the famed midnight sun season in summer. While it is deceptively called summer, the actual temperature hovers between 4-8°C in the high Arctic. The rocks have a reddish hue due to iron oxidation which is caused by the low pH value from the acid mine drainage with the backdrop of the snow-capped mountains giving it an almost alien-like environment. The samples collected will be later compared with peat swamp forests (low pH by nature) in tropical Borneo.