Life's Cradle: Tufa Towers on Mars?

Chris Hind (chind@juno.com)
Thu, 17 Oct 1996 10:25:20 -0700


I was watching Discovery Magazine on the Discovery channel tonite, and they
meantioned that life could've possibly formed in the shallow seas on Mars
when the planet was young. They meantioned that likely tufa tower formations
have been seen in dry lake basins on Mars and they will send a probe by
sometime in the future to verify that these are tufa formations. They say
that these tufa towers provide lots of little cracks for life to latch onto
in Mono Lake in California so why not on Mars. They meantioned that tufa
towers on Mars would be a great place to look for fossilized life due to the
quantity that could possibly be found there and that they find fossilized
(sp?) life in the tufa towers in Mono Lake constantly. For those that don't
know, there is a lake in california called Mono Lake which due to it's
bizarre chemical makeup creates these towers of mineral deposits which rise
up out of the highly salty lake. Does anyone know if these can be found
anywhere else? This idea has really inspired me also being the fact that
they've always said that Mono Lake looked as though it was from another
planet! I've been to Mono Lake myself and it's a cool place to explore.
Highly recommended. Check it out if you are near Mammoth Lakes. Oh yeah and
if my writing looks rhetorical and like crap it's cuz I'm damn tired right now.