The Central Highlands of Iceland offer scientists invaluable opportunities to study how landscapes evolve under extreme circumstances, like those on Mars. Protecting these areas and preserving them untouched is crucial to ensure the continued value in this regard, a NASA scientist argues.
The Icelandic National Broadcasting service quotes Dr. Christopher Hamilton, a volcanologist working with the NASA HiRISE team argued at a conference on a proposed National Park in the Central highlands, that the Central Highlands were remarkably similar to Mars. The barren landscapes, volcanism, glaciers and howling winds of the Central Highlands were all things you might run into on Mars.
Read more: NASA team searching for landing sites on Mars in North East Iceland
HiRISE, which stands for High Resolution Imaging Science Experiement, is a NASA project to create high resolution images of Mars‘ surface to study the geology of the red planet, as well as to help identify possible landing sites for future Mars missions. The team visited Iceland in the summer of 2015 to study the geology of the Central Highlands in an effort to better understand the landscapes they were seeing on Mars.
Dr. Hamilton argues the Central Highlands of Iceland also valuable opportunities to study how landscapes are transformed by volcanism and dramatic events like the 2014-2015 Holuhraun eruption. Protecting the highlands untouched was crucial in this regard, as all human structures changed the way a natural system acts. “If we want to use Iceland to study Mars it is important that key parts of the central highlands are left untouched, and that we allow the winds to howl unrestrained and blow over natural landscape. This tells us a lot about climate conditions both here on earth and on Mars, for example.”
The Central Highlands of Iceland offer scientists invaluable opportunities to study how landscapes evolve under extreme circumstances, like those on Mars. Protecting these areas and preserving them untouched is crucial to ensure the continued value in this regard, a NASA scientist argues.
The Icelandic National Broadcasting service quotes Dr. Christopher Hamilton, a volcanologist working with the NASA HiRISE team argued at a conference on a proposed National Park in the Central highlands, that the Central Highlands were remarkably similar to Mars. The barren landscapes, volcanism, glaciers and howling winds of the Central Highlands were all things you might run into on Mars.
Read more: NASA team searching for landing sites on Mars in North East Iceland
HiRISE, which stands for High Resolution Imaging Science Experiement, is a NASA project to create high resolution images of Mars‘ surface to study the geology of the red planet, as well as to help identify possible landing sites for future Mars missions. The team visited Iceland in the summer of 2015 to study the geology of the Central Highlands in an effort to better understand the landscapes they were seeing on Mars.
Dr. Hamilton argues the Central Highlands of Iceland also valuable opportunities to study how landscapes are transformed by volcanism and dramatic events like the 2014-2015 Holuhraun eruption. Protecting the highlands untouched was crucial in this regard, as all human structures changed the way a natural system acts. “If we want to use Iceland to study Mars it is important that key parts of the central highlands are left untouched, and that we allow the winds to howl unrestrained and blow over natural landscape. This tells us a lot about climate conditions both here on earth and on Mars, for example.”
