A Lost World of Lagoons Has Suddenly Appeared in Argentina

[Judi Lynn]

The alien environment could provide a unique window into the earliest days of life on Earth—but its future is uncertain.

BY TIM NEWCOMB
PUBLISHED: DEC 26, 2023 11:00 AM EST



Brian Hynek

Geologists recently uncovered a unique ecosystem in the high plateau desert of Argentina.

The life found in the area’s lagoons could give clues to how life could have existed on primordial Earth—when our planet had almost nonexistent oxygen in the atmosphere.

The 12-lagoon network features microbial communities that may still be growing, even though they are located in one of Earth’s harshest climates.

Scientists are still discovering unknown and exciting environments on Earth. The latest find—located 12,000 feet above sea level in Argentina’s Puna de Atacama—not only boasts 12 stunning crystal-clear lagoons spread across about 25 acres, but may also hold clues to what the early days of life on Earth (and Mars?) may have looked like.

It’s all thanks to stromatolites—complex microbial communities (formed primarily by microbes called cyanobacteria) that grow giant mounds of rock as they age. This particular stromatolite community is developing unlike any other in the modern world, even amidst the harsh Atacama climate of rare rainfall and unrelenting sun.

“This lagoon could be one of the best modern examples of the earliest signs of life on Earth,” Brian Hynek, a University of Colorado geologist who helped document the unique ecosystem, said in a statement. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen or, really, like anything any scientist has ever seen.”

Finding this alien environment, as Hynek describes it—which was previously entirely unknown, let alone unexplored—was somewhat of an interesting happenstance. After traveling for nine hours on a dirt road to northwest Argentina, Hynek was searching through satellite images of the surrounding desert when he saw what he thought could have been a network of lagoons.

More:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a46167690/lost-world-lagoons-argentina-desert/