![]() The features included areas of soil that were heated from the volcanic activity, but still exposed "ice hummocks," which are domes of unstable ice covering a heat-spewing volcanic vent and ice towers and caves that presented intricate labyrinths of icy underworlds.Īmong the unidentified DNA recovered at the volcanic sites, the closest match the scientists could find are arthropods. Once the researchers managed to reach the field station at the volcano Mount Erebus, where temperatures away from the geothermal sites get to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34 degrees Celsius), the team fanned out to various sites and used ropes and harnesses to access a range of geothermal features. "When we woke up on Thanksgiving for our 'feast' and made our soup, we realized our hot water was no longer hot-just tepid. "It was over Thanksgiving so we decided to save our remaining dry soup mix and crackers for Thanksgiving day," Connell says. The researchers' next step will be to find direct evidence - namely, the life itself - in samples. While the DNA captured from the volcanic areas did not conclusively prove that the sites host living forms of the plants and animals, the samples nonetheless offer a tantalizing glimpse into what forms of life might live there. "It opens up the doors to some exciting discoveries about biodiversity in Antarctica." ![]() which makes me wonder if there might be species that are specially adapted to the caves and found nowhere else," Fraser says. "There were some sequences that didn't make a close match to DNA in online databases. But Fraser says the team also identified genetics of life that may be unique to the unusual environment of the volcanic ice caves. Most of the DNA collected from the caves match with species of, say, moss, algae and nematodes already detected at other sites on the continent. She has won numerous awards including the Carl Sagan medal from the American Astronomical Society and the Lowell Thomas medal from the Explorers Club.It's in these caves that Fraser's research team collected soil samples that yielded the DNA of dozens of plant and animal species. She has authored or co-authored 9 books, including “Antarctica: Earth’s Own Ice World”. She was a science team member of both the Galileo and Cassini missions and is currently studying whether Titan may be habitable. ![]() ![]() Her research expertise is planetary volcanology and she has studied volcanoes on Mars, Jupiter’s moon Io, and Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus. Rosaly Lopes is the Directorate Scientist for Planetary Science at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The talk will discuss their journey from the initial proposal to the publication of a book.ĭr. They explored the caves and ice towers on the flanks of Erebus, taking photographs and eventually generating original art depicting scenes in Antarctica that are analogs to those on other planets and moons. Rosaly Lopes will tell the story of their journey, discussing Antarctica’s infrastructure, the training necessary for working in the hostile conditions, and their work at the volcano. The complex operations of Antarctica’s McMurdo station and outposts echo the types of strategies that future explorers will undertake as they set up settlements on the Moon and Mars. In 2016, Rosaly Lopes and artist Michael Carroll teamed up as fellows of the National Science Foundation to travel to Mount Erebus, Earth’s southernmost active volcano.
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