Abstract
Astrobiology is a multidisciplinary science that learns the potential for life in the Universe. This research area focusses on the understanding of interdisciplinary processes, such as biogeochemical cycling, fossilization, minimal cell, chemical evolution, life definition, the origin of planetary systems, and intelligence, implying the crossover between multiple sciences. Terrestrial analogs are localities that resemble the conditions of early Earth, or planetary bodies; the likeness can be biological, physical, geological, and chemical conditions, or geographical sites. In this chapter, it is argued that the Lake Alchichica can be used as analog site for several environments of interest for astrobiology since it owns life, substances, objects, and patterns that can contribute to clarify open questions in the field related to early evolution on Earth and habitability in the Solar System. Firstly, Lake Alchichica offers an analog site to study the resulting geologic and morphologic conditions due to the interaction between water and magma. This interaction reassembles the phreatomagmatic explosions that have been proposed in Mars and other Solar System bodies such as Titan, where the glacio-volcanism formed by the explosive interaction between magma and fluid occurs. The interaction between magma and water leads to glassy alterations by a process called palagonitization; this process could be conducted by biotic or abiotic processes. Besides, the alteration of volcanic products provides cations to the lake water, and thus to aquatic biological communities, including, haloalkaliphilic microorganisms that have been proposed as biological analogs for the Saturn satellite Enceladus. Moreover, microbial communities may form mat-building microbialites that resemble those recorded in Precambrian sedimentary record.
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Cervantes-de la Cruz, K., Chacón-Baca, E., Montoya, L. (2022). The Lake Alchichica from an Astrobiological Perspective. In: Alcocer, J. (eds) Lake Alchichica Limnology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79096-7_23
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