Abstract
Eleven onshore mud volcanoes in the southern region of Trinidad have been studied as analog habitats for possible microbial life on Mars. The profiles of the 11 mud volcanoes are presented in terms of their physical, chemical, mineralogical, and soil properties. The mud volcanoes sampled all emitted methane gas consistently at 3% volume. The average pH for the mud volcanic soil was 7.98. The average Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) was found to be 2.16 kg/mol, and the average Percentage Water Content was 34.5%. Samples from three of the volcanoes, (i) Digity; (ii) Piparo and (iii) Devil’s Woodyard were used to culture bacterial colonies under anaerobic conditions indicating possible presence of methanogenic microorganisms. The Trinidad mud volcanoes can serve as analogs for the Martian environment due to similar geological features found extensively on Mars in Acidalia Planitia and the Arabia Terra region.
Highlights
Mars is one of the key places of interest in the solar system for the possible detection of microbial life [1]
The eleven mud volcanoes of Trinidad were subjected to analyses to measure mud volcano chemical parameters
The average elemental analyses for the 11 mud volcanoes is depicted in Figure 4 below
Summary
Mars is one of the key places of interest in the solar system for the possible detection of microbial life [1]. Some of the best studied terrestrial mud volcanoes are in Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea [6], the onshore mud volcanoes in the Caribbean region are not well known and studied from a Martian analog perspective Morphological evidence such as river beds and surface volcanism show that Mars possesses similar geological structures to Earth, and was once just as active [7]. The issue of methane on Mars is far from settled, it is still important to consider the mineralogy of the terrestrial mud volcanoes due to the similar geological structures on Mars This is so in light of the findings from Curiosity of the fluvio-Lacustrine environment at Yellowknife. The possibility of methane on Mars combined with similar geological features of mud volcanoes, on Mars is significant reason to warrant the study of mud volcanoes as analog to the Martian environment. Fossils from the Digity mud volcano were dated as 15 million years old, evidence that the slurry of the mud volcano serves to elucidate geological history of these structures on Earth and so too on Mars
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