Primary Mission - Further Lithic Organism Sampling

The biology mission at MDRS was focused on laboratory analysis of yesterday's samples (described under the Laboratory Analysis Section and the exploration of new territory by the EVA team.

Today's EVA team visited several sites. As expected, numerous lichens were found in all areas where rocks were plentiful. We again avoided the collection of lichens.

Like yesterday, we primarily were looking for endolithic and hypolithic organisms. All rocky area waypoints were examined for these organisms. Waypoint 18 (see geology section for description and location) was the most prosperous site of the day for endolithic organisms. A green layer inside some areas of sandstone-like rock was exposed upon cracking. This was about 1 cm below the surface. Hypolithic organisms (under/bottom of rock) were not visualized at any location by our team. Another interesting set of rocks at Waypoint 18 appeared to have an exterior black/brown coating even though their interior minerals were lighter in color. This is hypothesized to be ‘desert varnish’, a painted appearance on the rocks due to microorganisms oxidizing manganese and iron to produce black and red colors. Upon chiseling these rocks, layers of green material were found directly below the surface. Possibly there are endolithic organisms below the surface that created this painted appearance. It would be nice to test for certain minerals in these painted rocks and in all rocks in general. Perhaps this may be a capability of future MDRS crews.

Organisms besides lichens were sparse at other sites visited by the EVA team. There were many plants near the Lower Blue Hills area (Waypoints 20 and 21). A fossil was found in a wash (Waypoint 20). See the other section of the report for details on this waypoint. This fossil has the appearance of tube-like worms Glomerula. Another probability is that the fossil is a plant. A large field of mollusk fossils was found at Waypoint 23. See the other section of the report on Waypoint 23 for details on the mollusk fossils and the landscape.