EPSC Abstracts Vol. 15, EPSC2021-452, 2021 https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2021-452 Europlanet Science Congress 2021 © Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Characterization of the Potential of the Puna de Atacama region in terms of Planetary Analogs : Preliminary results for the Salar de Maricunga, Tres Cruces, Laguna Verde and Ojos del Salado Areas Adrien Tavernier1, Ayon Garcia1, Christopher Ulloa1, Romulo Oses2, Estefania Bonnail3, Kevin McGrath4,5, Chirayu Mohan4,5, Hannah Reilly4,5, Gary Brady4,5, and Bernard Foing5,6,7 1Universidad de Atacama, IDICTEC, LICA, Chile (
[email protected]) 2Universidad de Atacama, CRIDESAT, Chile 3Universidad de Atacama, CIC, Chile 4Technological University Dublin, TU Dublin, Ireland 5International Lunar Exploration Working Group, ILEWG EuroMoonMars 6Free University of Amsterdam, VUA, Netherlands 7Leiden University, Netherlands The Atacama Desert and the Puna (an ecoregion of the Central Andes that mainly straddles three South American countries, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, with altitudes ranging from 3500 to 4800 meters above sea level [masl] see. Figure 1) have extreme terrestrial environmental characteristics that make these two geographic locations potential analogs of the conditions that Mars may have experienced during its geological history [1,2]. Figure 1 : Geographical landmark / Bottom left, Zoom in on the campaign area with sampling points present (Copyright : Google Earth) The University of Atacama (UDA) located in Copiapo (27º37S / 70º33W) in Chile, aims to conduct multidisciplinary studies to better characterize the extreme environment of the Puna de Atacama. This project is based, in particular, on the forthcoming implementation of a high-altitude laboratory located at 3800 masl in the vicinity of the Salar de Maricunga (26º92S / 69º08W) [3].