The mission objectives for the Red Flyer list three microbial niches as sites of scientific interest. They are Dakota Sandstone for endoliths, evaporite sites for halophiles and sapping sites for general microbial richness. Since the ARV was not able to fly over any of the selected science sites, we went looking for these targets on the ground this week. Stacy was looking for endoliths and my science objectives, which were of the lowest priority in terms of mission goals, were to identify sapping and evaporite sites for future investigations. I did not think, with all that we had to do, that I was going to get any of this work done, but as it turned out, I was able to locate both a sapping site and an evaporite site today.

The evaporite site is north of the Hab. Coordinates are 4254552 N 517036 E (NAD 27). The area contains abundant gypsum and brine in the traditional “bathtub rings” that are indicative of evaporite sites. These deposits are in the Morrison Formation. Samples taken of the brine will be cultured for halophiles back at my home institution. It is interesting to note that there are much more brine deposits this year than in previous years, probably because this has been an unusually wet winter in Utah. Up near Richfield on I-70, where the largest evaporite site, deposited during the Jurassic, is located, there is distinctly more brine than I have ever seen.

I found the sapping site high up in the Dakota Sandstone when we were hiking through Lith Canyon, which is in the Morrison. The site can be viewed from down in the canyon. Coordinates at the viewing site are 4256775 N 518608 E (NAD 27). To get there, you need to hike through the canyon until it widens. At the beginning of the wide area, there is a slump of Dakota Sandstone on the right and tucked behind it is a mini-Goblin Valley. High up the cliff in the Dakota Sandstone is a displaced erratic that is the sapping site which is approximately 5 meters across. There is sapping activity all along it.

Both of these sites will be the focus of future microbial research here at MDRS.