The Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii has been setting off small earthquakes, creating gas-emitting fissures and releasing flows of lava this month that have destroyed dozens of homes and forced the evacuation of at least 2,000 people. But some scientists look at the basalt-rich lava fields around Kilauea, which could yet produce more explosions in coming days, and see something else: a portal to Mars, whose surface is mostly composed of basaltic rocks. A team of biologists, volcanologists, astronauts and other specialists has periodically conducted fieldwork in the Kilauea fields since 2015 as part of a four-year, NASA-led research project. Among the questions they are investigating is how any life on ancient Mars, if it did exist, may have developed. Basaltic terrain can host a diverse range of microorganisms, leading scientists in Hawaii to focus on the bacteria and other organisms living there, and the factors that enable them to survive.

Source: New York Times May 28, 2018 06:56 UTC