Earth Sciences Commons^™

Impact Craters As Habitats For Life: Endolithic Colonization Of Shocked Gneiss From The Haughton Impact Structure, Devon Island, Canada, Alexandra Janine Pontefract

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Meteorite impacts are ubiquitous throughout our solar system and are a fundamental geological process on rocky and icy planetary bodies. Though initially detrimental to biology, an impact event can favourably change the availability and habitability of a substrate for endolithic organisms, which are then able to (re)colonize micro-fractures and pore spaces created during the impact. The colonization of rocks by endolithic communities is an advantageous trait, especially in environments such as hot or cold deserts, where temperature shifts, low water availability and high UV indices pose a significant problem. On Mars, similar conditions – albeit, more extreme – prevail. In …