Dale Andersen’s Astrobiology Field Report 6 December 2015

A solid day of work today despite the winds – we have had 25-30 knot (gusting to 40) winds each day for the last several days but we have nevertheless been pretty productive. Today during a calmer period this afternoon I made a dive beneath the 3 m thick perennial ice of Lake Untersee so I could collect sediment cores from the bottom of the lake.

These cores will prove useful in many ways and using a variety of analytical techniques they will help inform us about the history of the lake as well as providing a better picture of ancient environments here on early earth and perhaps on early Mars. After bringing the samples ot the surface, Yukiko Tanabe and Klemens Weisleitner split the cores, sub-sampled them for other team members, and then Pablo Sobron and Klemens analyzed the core using IR and Raman Spectrometry.

Much left to do both above and below the ice, so the team is quite busy now.