Antarctic study paves way for search for Martians

Mars

LONDON (Reuters) -- Experiments in Mars-like areas in Antarctica could provide clues about how best to search for signs of life on the inhospitable red planet, U.S. scientists said Wednesday.

Scientists from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) found that mysteriously high salt concentrations in the exposed soils of Antarctica's Dry Valleys -- areas perennially devoid of snow and ice cover -- were due to sulphur-emitting marine algae.

In a discovery important for Martian exploration, the scientists also found that digging more deeply into the soil of the Dry Valleys yielded higher concentrations of biologically produced sulphates.

This might be because these sulphates migrate down through the soil, the scientists said in the science journal Nature.

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"What this tells us is that when we go to Mars to retrieve soil samples, we're going to have to go below the surface to retrieve samples, because these sulphates may migrate," Mark Thiemens, dean of UCSD's division of physical sciences, said in a statement.

"By studying the soil of the Dry Valleys, you really have a good glimpse of what can happen on Mars. The conditions of the Dry Valleys are about as close as you're going to get to the conditions on Mars," he added.

A spokesman for the National Science Foundation, which part funded the UCSD study, said the research would prove invaluable.

"It is very important in helping us to design experiments for spacecraft that may one day visit other planets," said Scott Borg, who manages the NSF's Antarctic geology and geophysics program.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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University of California, San Diego
Nature
National Science Foundation

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