Researchers have discovered a striking ecosystem of crystal-clear lagoons and salt flats in Argentina’s Puna de Atacama desert that may offer a window into early life on Earth and Mars. A collection of crystal-clear lagoons and vast salt flats in Argentina’s Puna de Atacama desert forms an extraterrestrial ecosystem unlike anything scientists have ever seen, researchers say.

The never-before-seen lagoons contain piles of microbe-covered rocks that, at first glance, resemble some of the first known life forms on Earth. Researchers discovered this lost world by chance after spotting a network of strange pools in satellite images of a desert in northwestern Argentina.

Puna de Atacama is a giant plateau on Argentina’s border with Chile, 3,660 meters above sea level. Here, high altitude, dry conditions, and bright sunlight combine to create a harsh environment where few plants and animals can survive.

Brian Hynek, an associate professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Maria Farias, a microbiologist and co-founder of the environmental consulting firm PunaBio, walked several miles through the barren land before seeing the lagoons.

“This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen or anything any scientist has ever seen,” Hynek said in a statement.

According to the description, twelve shallow pools of crystalline water surrounded by mountains form a newly discovered alien ecosystem that spans 10 hectares of desert. Researchers noticed small hills covered with green microbes beneath the surface of the lagoons.

“It’s really surprising that you can still find these kinds of undocumented things on our planet,” Hynek said, adding that the discovery was the biggest eureka moment of his life.

“The living mounds, about 15 meters wide and several meters high, provide a window into the earliest stages of life on Earth and possibly even ancient life on Mars,” Hynek said. said. Initial observations suggest that these may be stromatolites (complex communities of microbes whose secretions solidify into layers of rock), similar to those that existed during the oxygen-free period in Earth history called the Archean (4 to 2.5 billion years ago). atmosphere.

Stromatolites still occur today in a variety of marine and freshwater habitats, but they grow much smaller than their ancient counterparts. The mounds in the Atacama Lagoons were similar in size to Archean stromatolites, which grew up to 6 m in height, as evidenced by fossils. Atakami stromatolites consisted mostly of gypsum, a mineral frequently found in fossilized stromatolites but not in modern samples.

“We think these mounds actually grew from microbes, which was the case with the oldest ones,” Hynek said.

Soaked by the salty, acidic water of the lagoon and baked by excessive solar radiation, the mound formations were home to two types of microbes; Covering the outer surface were layers of photosynthetic bacteria called cyanobacteria and thriving communities of single-celled organisms known as archaea. on the core.

“If life on Mars evolved down to the fossil level, this would be it,” Hynek said. “Understanding these modern communities on Earth can inform us about what to look for when looking for similar features in Martian rocks.”

But since the site is leased for lithium mining, researchers will need to act quickly if they want to confirm these initial observations.

“This entire unique ecosystem could disappear within a few years,” Hynek said. “We hope that we can preserve this area, or at least preserve the details of what is there before it is destroyed or spoiled forever.” Source