CORE CONCEPTS Lava tubes may be havens for ancient alien life and future human explorers CORE CONCEPTS Sid Perkins, Science Writer Sometimes, there’s more to a lava flow than meets the If Mars ever hosted life, it may have moved into eye. Beneath a fresh, sterile, and steaming hot surface, such refugia as the planet evolved and surface molten rock can still be chewing its way into the conditions became increasingly harsh. Indeed, some ground, carving caves that can stretch dozens of kilo- researchers suggest that microbial life may yet hang meters. On Earth, such lava tubes (once cooled) are a on in the Red Planet’s underground havens. “On Mars challenge for spelunkers. On the moon and Mars, and other places, lava tubes have the potential to have these features are piquing the interest of planetary made the difference between life and death,” says geologists, astrobiologists, and explorers. Pascal Lee, a planetary researcher at NASA Ames Re- Besides providing a window into geological his- search Center in Mountain View, CA. tory, lava tubes offer environmental conditions that Wherever lava tubes are found, they’ll be scientif- are relatively stable and likely to be more hospitable ically exotic, says Lee. And if a mission to another than those found on a planet’s surface. This may make world is designed to explore such an underground the tubes appealing to life-forms of all sizes, from mi- feature as well as the surface, “it’ll be like getting crobes to spacefaring colonists from Earth. two planets for the price of one,” he notes. Lava tubes on the moon and Mars—larger than this one in Iceland’s Surtshellir-Stefanshellir lava tube system—could provide habitat for spacefaring colonists as well as opportunities for geological exploration. Image credit: Under Earth Images/Dave Bunnell. Published under the PNAS license. First published July 8, 2020. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2012176117 PNAS | July 28, 2020 | vol. 117 | no. 30 | 17461–17464 Downloaded by guest on September 29, 2021 evidence has emerged. Images snapped by orbiting probes show openings into underground voids. Often referred to as skylights, these openings probably formed when the roofs of lava tubes fell in. The first such feature on the moon—a hole 50 meters across and dozens of meters deep—was discovered more than a decade ago in an image captured by Japan’s SELENE orbiter (3). Many more skylights have been found on the moon since then, and hundreds of pos- sible skylights have been spotted on images snapped by Mars orbiters, the first of which were taken in the mid-1970s (4). Earth’s lava tubes range in age from a few years old, such as those on the slopes of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, to a few hundred thousand years or more. The freshest tubes have yet to be mapped, but in some areas they’re known to stretch dozens of kilo- meters. In California’s Lava Beds National Monument, for example, more than 800 lava tubes together ex- tend at least 350 kilometers. Habitat for Humanity? Researchers have for decades speculated that lava The shadow cast by a skylight into a lava tube beneath the moon’s Mare Tranquillitatis suggests the feature may be a little more than 100 meters deep. tubes on the moon and elsewhere could offer prime Image credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University. space for setting up living quarters for colonists (5). The tubes are appealing for many reasons, as Laura Kerber, a geologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labo- Grow With the Flow ratory in Pasadena, CA, explained at the caves con- Lava tubes can form almost anywhere molten rock ference (6). First, the environment is protected from streams from the ground. Steady flows of low-viscosity radiation such as cosmic rays, solar energetic particles, lava are the most likely to form lava tubes. They can and ultraviolet light. Second, the rock roof would be a form in a way akin to how rivers ice over during a cold shield against micrometeorites that could otherwise spell. As flowing lava loses heat to the overlying air, its puncture spacesuits and buildings. And as on Earth, — surface cools and solidifies but it does so more the underground environment would be buffered quickly at the edges of the flow, where material moves from temperature swings. On the moon, those varia- slowly. Eventually, the molten flow freezes over from tions are extreme. Data gathered by the Lunar Re- shore to shore, which insulates the underlying lava by connaissance Orbiter between 2009 and 2013 reveal robbing it of the ability to directly radiate heat upward that temperatures near the lunar equator can reach or be cooled by winds, he explains. Then, when the 120 °C in the daytime and plunge to –130 °C during source of lava begins to wane or as the molten flow the two-week-long night. chews or melts its way into the underlying rocks, or Whether colonists could actually take advantage of both, lava drains from the conduit and leaves behind a those benefits is another question. Considering the smooth-sided, steep-walled cavern. likely instability of material around the edges of sky- Lava flows can melt their way into underlying rocks. lights, as well as the limited mobility of existing If the flow is fast and turbulent, lava can erode spacesuits, it would be a big challenge to lower peo- downward as much as 1 meter each day, according to ple into a hole in the ground and then get them back Alan Whittington, a geologist at University of Texas out, says Whittington. Then there’s the question of San Antonio, speaking at the Third International whether lava tubes are safe, says NASA’s Lee. Despite Planetary Caves Conference in San Antonio, TX, in what he describes as the romantic idea of making a February (1). So the tubes created by voluminous and home in these features, “the truth about caves is that long-lived flows can be huge. The longest known lava they’re dangerous,” he says. That’s especially likely to tube on Earth—65-kilometer-long Kazumura Cave, on be true near skylights, where the roof has already the Big Island of Hawaii—stretches almost to the sea demonstrated the propensity to collapse. Human ac- from the Kilauea volcano. In some spots, the tube tivity could well destabilize them even further, or measures 21 meters wide and 18 meters tall (2)—a cause avalanches of material around the edges of the profile big enough to hold a good-sized house. skylights. “Lava tubes may be exciting to explore but But lava tubes on the moon and Mars are almost not that safe to live in,” Lee says. certainly bigger. Most of these features likely date from 3 to 4 billion years ago, when both bodies had Holes without Drilling frequent volcanic activity. Grooved features known as Whether or not lava tubes provide homes for pio- sinuous rilles have long been suspected to be col- neering lunar colonists, they’ll provide plenty of oppor- lapsed lava tubes; and more recently, stronger tunities for geological research. As Charity Phillips-Lander, 17462 | www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2012176117 Perkins Downloaded by guest on September 29, 2021 an astrobiologist at Southwest Research Institute in rovers, suggest that billions of years ago Mars was warmer, San Antonio, TX, remarked at the Planetary Caves wetter, and had a thicker atmosphere than it does today. If conference, “caves provide access to the subsurface life ever evolved on the Red Planet, and if it was anything ” without the added weight of a drilling payload. like life on Earth, it wouldn’t be living on the Mars surface Apollo astronauts, as part of their rock- and soil- today, says Lee. Besides being cold and arid, the surface is collecting activities on the lunar surface, never drilled exposed to high amounts of ultraviolet radiation. The lack more than 2.9 meters into the surface. In contrast, the of a strong magnetic field means that cosmic rays and walls of lunar skylights can measure tens of meters thick and show distinct layers. Some of those layers energetic particles from the sun are free to stream down, may be ancient lava flows that could be dated to show adding to the radiation hazard. Static electricity in the when and how often volcanic activity occurred, Kerber planet’s fierce dust storms helps create reactive chemicals notes. Sandwiched between those strata may be lay- called perchlorates that are toxic to any Earthlike life. ers of regolith, or pulverized rock, formed by the in- cessant pounding of meteorite impacts. The thickness of such layers may help researchers estimate the rates “If life exists there, or existed there in the past, it at which such impacts occurred in the past. The rates probably will be best maintained in the subsurface, and timing of such impacts would be roughly the same away from harsh surface conditions and processes.” as those Earth experienced, so they may shed light — on the planet’s environment as life emerged—and Charity Phillips-Lander whether it was snuffed out before emerging again. Moreover, detailed chemical analyses of those mate- “But when you look at the subsurface, all of a rials may reveal information about past variations in ” the solar wind, whose charged particles become sudden a lot of these problems go away, Lee notes. “ trapped in the regolith. Tracing the history of the solar Phillips-Lander agrees: If life exists there, or existed wind could also shed light on variations in Earth’s there in the past, it probably will be best maintained in ancient climate.