Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine

NAI Explores Most Active Volcanic Region on Earth & Brings the Public Along

By Keith Cowing
September 20, 2006

NAI investigators, led by Jake Maule of the CIW Team, are exploring the Kamchatka Peninsula in Eastern Russia. Kamchatka is a vast land of ‘fire and ice’, being home to 10% of the most active volcanoes on Earth with many surrounded by glaciers.

The highest and most active volcano in Kamchatka is called Kluchevsky – the destination of this expedition. Surrounded by permafrost and the famous Ermann glacier, Klyuchevsky has similarities to other volcanoes in the solar system such as the extremely active Loki Patera on Jupiter’s moon Io (Lopes-Gautier et al., 2000) and the less active Hecates Tholus on Mars where some glacial activity may still exist (Hauber et al., 2005). The international team from the NAI, the Russian Astrobiology Center (RAC) and the Australian Center for Astrobiology (ACA) have traveled to the Klyuchevsky Volcano Group (July-October 2006) to explore the limits of life in fire and ice and improve our ability to detect life on other planets.For more information and to follow along on the expedition, visit the website: http://nai.nasa.gov/kamchatk [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻