Olivine bioweathering
and signatures of life on Mars. Olivine (popular name: peridot) is a mineral from volcanic rocks. Thin sections
of olivine crystals revealed microchannels (0.5-10 microns in diameter) inside the crystals. Such channels were found earlier
in three billion years old rocks but we also found them in the Martian meteorite Nakhla. Are these microchannels produced
by microbes? We study microbial phsiology on olivine surfaces. We isolate and identify microbes, measure metabolic changes
and characterize fingerprints of this activity. (Collaborators: Martin Fisk (OSU); Amy Smith; Wen Fang).
Microscope images of the same thin section through an olivine crystal, taken in visible and Ultraviolet (UV) ligth.
In visible light the microchannels are seen. In UV light the microbes fluoresce due to previous staining with DAPI.
For this work we akcnowledge support from a NASA Astrobiology grant.
