Description
The study of lava caves on Earth provides key information for identifying evidence of potential life on other planets and extraterrestrial bodies. Caves are dark, subterranean homes to a wealth of unknown and intriguing microbial life. This class explores this microbial life in lava caves in El Malpais National Monument (NM) and Hawai`i to learn how microbes survive in dark environments with limited energy sources, and how this knowledge helps identify life on Mars and beyond.
Diana Northup, PhD, is a visiting associate professor at the UNM. Her work centers around understanding how life exists in the dark. The subterranean biosphere of caves has fueled her passion for science for decades. In caves throughout the world, Northup studies extremophiles, including microbes that eat rock, and microbes that masquerade as minerals, to help better detect life on extraterrestrial bodies.