A Lake That Looks Like Mars
To see what extraterrestrial life might be like, scientists are busy studying freshwater coral reef–like structures in a Canadian lake
A Lake That Looks Like Mars
- IMMERSED IN THE PAST: To venture below the surface of Pavilion Lake is to take a trip back in time to observe Earth's earliest life forms. The finger-shaped 3.7-mile- (six-kilometer-) long freshwater lake in British Columbia, Canada, is riddled with reeflike structures called microbialites that form from microbes and minerals interacting over thousands of years. "We are looking at this as a modern analog to help interpret early life on Earth," explains Greg Slater, an oceanographer from McMaster University who is part of the Pavilion Lake Research Project (http://www.pavilionlake.com/). "And fundamentally understating early life on Earth and looking for life on Mars is a similar type of problem." Donnie Reid
- THROWBACKS: No other place on Earth boasts the diverse array of microbialite structures found at Pavilion Lake. They take the shape of everything from large florets of cauliflower to chimneylike stalagmites. Although these structures only started forming 11,000 years ago when the Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreated from the area, they are believed to be a modern day version of the early Cambrian reefs that flourished on Earth 540 million years ago. How they form remains unknown. One theory is that the organic layer in which the microbes live is trapping minerals and slowly building up the rock. Donnie Reid
- DEEP WORK: Over the past few weeks a team of researchers from the Canadian Space Agency (http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/default.asp), NASA, the University of British Columbia, McMaster University and Nuytco Research (http://www.nuytco.com/) have clocked over 90 hours combing over the lake's bottom using two DeepWorker 2000 (http://www.nuytco.com/products/subs.shtml) single-person submersibles. Donnie Reid
- SECLUDED SCIENCE: Pavilion Lake, which is part of Marble Canyon Provincial Park, is found 260 miles (420 kilometers) northeast of Vancouver in the interior of British Columbia. Its unique freshwater formations have been known to locals and divers for years, but they didn't come to the scientific community’s attention until 1997. BC Parks Service
- SONIC COLOR: Since 1997, the lake has been studied and explored by scuba divers, sonar readings and robotic subs. In this sonar of the lake floor, hard surfaces like rocks and microbialites appear green. The blue areas are made of softer mud or sediment. The lake is mostly shallow but can be as deep as 200 feet (60 meters) in places. Geoff Mullins and John Bird
- BARGING IN: The barge here acts as the subs' mobile garage. The two 1.75 ton DeepWorker submersibles are hand cranked into and out of the water from this custom-built wooden barge every day--which docks at night. The red Captain Command Center barge is seen in the background. It roves around on the lake surface mirroring the position of the subs underwater so as to stay in touch with their pilots. Jim Thompson
- ASTRODIVER: Here NASA Astronaut Mike Gernhardt (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/gernhard.html) is lowered into the water in one of the DeepWorker 2000 submersibles. Gernhardt is a commercial diver–turned-astronaut. His experience at Pavilion Lake will help inform him on what processes and challenges moon explorers will face--information that will help him design NASA's next generation of lunar rovers. Jim Thompson
- EXTRATERRESTRIAL EARTH: McMaster's Greg Slater has also been busy taking samples of the microbialites and lake water in an effort to figure out how on earth these structures formed in the first place, and which compounds act as an indicator for them. After all, if scientists can learn how to recognize microbialites from afar and develop tests for them here at Pavilion Lake, where life resembles that from billions of years ago, they should be a step ahead when they search for extraterrestrial life. David Williams
