Puna de Atacama Archives

Green mounds of stromatolites flourish at the bottom of a lagoon in Argentina's Puna de Atacama. (Credit: Brian Hynek)

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Fossils & Paleontology, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Deep Within An Inhospitable Desert Is A Window To The First Life On Earth

by Keith CowingDecember 18, 2023August 23, 2025

CU Boulder geologist Brian Hynek has helped to document what may be a unique kind of ecosystem on Earth—and a possible window into the earliest stages of life on this […]

This photograph shows a member of a species of leaf-eared mouse called Phyllotis vaccarum. CREDIT Marcial Quiroga-Carmona

Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Press Release

Mouse Mummies Point To Mammalian Life In “Mars-like” Andes

by Keith CowingNovember 6, 2023November 5, 2023

The dry, wind-swept summits of volcanoes in the Puna de Atacama of Chile and Argentina are the closest thing on Earth to the surface of Mars due to their thin […]