The volcanic settings of the Eolian Islands, Italy, offer access to various types of volcanic terrains, with diverse morphology and mineralogy. The current signs of volcanic activity on the island of Vulcano, whose last eruption is dated to 1890, include e.g. the presence of large fumarole fields on ground and underwater. The dry landscape and easy access to layers of older and more recent...
In the last decade Polar Research in Germany became increasingly an important focus in Space Research activities, particularly in Planetary Research and Astrobiology. The reason is obvious, because the planets and moons in our Solar System, with a potential to be habitable and also being promising candidates for the search for life beyond Earth, are icy worlds. These icy conditions on those...
The Barrancas Blancas Plain (~5000 m a.s.l., 68°39' W, 27°02' S) in the high Atacama Andes of Chile is a unique place that combines the harsh characteristics of the mountain desert environment with the presence of ice-rich permafrost. This place is situated in a Mars analog region and is therefore considered to be a natural laboratory for the study of extremophilic microbes, aiming to...
