THE LIVING ROCKS OF MARS

November 2015

by

Lyall Winston Small

This booklet is an informal presentation of images illustratingone aspect of my view that Mars has supported past and perhapsextant microbial life similar to ours and that its signs exist inseveral of the images sent back from that planet by MarsrsquoRovers Spirit Opportunity and Curiosity

It compares images of Living Rocks on Earth with images ofMartian Stromatolite Like Rocks (MSLRs) from the MER andMSL archives It is concluded that there are enough similaritiesbetween the images to indicate that they might have similarfunctions and origins

It is suggested that NASArsquos understandably strict protocols forthe definitive identification of life on Mars ensures that anannouncement of such a discovery will be long in coming eventhough MSLRs might abound on Mars In the interim a visualdemonstration of the possible widespread existence of life onMars might help to underscore the urgency for refining spaceexploration protocols to ensure that rigorous proactivePlanetary Protection Policies are in place for future missionsto Mars and other planetary bodies

CONTENTS

1 Introduction

2 Background

3 The Stromatolite family of rocks

31 General morphological characteristics

32 Range of Earthrsquos Stromatolite Like rock types

33 Range of putative MSLRrsquos on Mars

4 Comparing Earth and putative Mars MSLRs

5 Theyrsquore all over Mars

51 Some more images from Curiosity

52 Some more images from Opportunity

53 Some more images from Spirit

6 Fossils or Living Rocks

7 Conclusions

Annex 1 Abbreviations and Definitions

Annex 2 Source URLrsquos for illustrations

Annex 3 Internet References

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

My ebook ldquoOn Debris Flowsrdquo made a case for theinvolvement of debris flows and veins in nurturing anddisseminating putative microbial life on Mars This onecontinues that theme but concentrates on showing visualsimilarities between living rocks on Earth and certain rocks onMars but also suggests that some Martian rocks may indeed beof themselves Living Rocks

The images used in this book come from two main sourcesthe NASAJPLCaltech Internet archives of raw images takenby the Mars Rovers and a miscellany of images ofMicrobialites on Earth All images were sourced from theInternet and are acknowledged in Annex 2

I processed the images from the Mars Rovers that are used inthe book The Gimp image processing programme was usedto autoequalize or white balance most of them to produce resultsthat imho more closely matches with what the human eyemight see on Mars Some images were also sharpened in Gimpto bring out features that I considered needed to be highlighted

Several of my images are 3D anaglyphs that require the readerto use RedBlue 3D anaglyph glasses Those images were allmade using the StereoPhotomaker application

The main argument against the validity of the major premiseof this book is that it is based on unproven visual similaritiesonly and that such similarities are more likely to be accidentalthan meaningful and should therefore be ignored until adequateproofs are available

That would be a perfectly rational approach if currentcapabilities of the Rovers allowed for quick definitive actionsto prove or disprove any assertion that the MSLRs were thesame as Earthrsquos stromatolites

It should be recognized however that if a visual similarity isfound in only one or very few places it should be deemed ifnot butressed by other considerations to be purely accidentalIf it consistently recurs in several widely different places onMarsrsquo surface and in widely different environments there I thinkwe should take a closer look at the phenomenon as it thenbecomes meaningful This book shows that MSLRs have beenfound by all the Mars rovers in each of the extended areas theyexamined That alone should suggest that the resemblances areprobably meaningful and not necessarily accidental

In addition the Stromatolite look alikerdquo phenomenon alsobecomes meaningful if one takes into account a number of otherfactors One such factor is that Stromatolites are nowrecognized as possibly the earliest form of life on EarthTherefore a finding that stromatolite ldquolook alikesrdquo are ofwidespread occurrence on Mars should be of highly significantimportance as a pointer to early Life there and that such lifemight be similar in some respects to ours Research in thisarea should therefore be treated with the priority intrinsic tosuch a possibility occurring

The Mars rovers are not now capable of definitively proving ifan MSLR was once living or not They dont have the analyticalchemistry or geochemistry capability to do so However itmust be pointed out that the main study that found that Galecrater had all the chemical elements that were characteristic ofEarth life as well as other prerequisites that suggestedhabitability in the past was carried out on samples taken froman area replete with putative MSLRs

In view of the above and that issues of planetary protection areof paramount importance to the future of planetary exploration

I think that NASA cannot just dismiss the possibility ofmeaningful resemblance in this case and deem the severalinstances of similarity as accidental They have to be treatedas having a fairly high probability of being meaningful

If one extrapolates from Gil Levinrsquos findings in 1976 Lifeexists on Mars right now just below the surface For it to existthere now means that it probably existed long ago in the pastand that the microbes involved in their production might stillexist on Mars surface That factor alone increases theprobability of resemblances between Stromatolites and MSLRsbeing meaningful and not accidental

It therefore seems likely that if the search for life on Mars isthe unspoken goal of the current exploration of Mars one thingthat the Relevant Authorities should be exploring there is thepresence of rocks that resemble stromatolites and examiningthem as thoroughly as the capacities of the Rovers allow

It is suggested that under ordinary situations it might beunscientific to use ldquolooks likerdquo as an important feature of aninvestigation This case is different It is currently the onlyway to get a feel for if there is a distinct possibility that Marshas Stromatolite like rocks on its surface or not It shouldtherefore be embraced until more elegant 21st century methodsbecome available

I decided to put together a simple illustrated ebook that couldbe used by most persons interested in Mars to compare imagesof rocks acquired by the Marsrsquo Rovers (which I term MartianStromatolite Like Rocks or MSLRrsquos ) with typicalStromatolites the living rocks found on Earth

I hope that this book will help to trigger a wider appreciationof the possibility that fossil and perhaps even livingstromatolites might exist in abundance on Mars

A number of facts suggest that the possibility that there mighthave been significant colonization of Marsrsquo surface byStromatolite types is not a novel one for the NASAJPLCaltechRover scientists The naming of some sites for in-depthobservations is one of the main pointers to this Such namesas the Pilbara target on Opportunity sol 88 very early in thatcampaign indicates that they were at least aware that theremight be a linkage of stromatolites with that target Similarlythe Cercedilla and Wopmay names on Earth are closely linkedwith stromatolites as well as the Pahrump name

Another pointer is that NASA is pursuing active collaborationswith Universities around the world on the study of variousaspects of stromatolite growth in locations that are well knownfor stromatolites or ancient living rocks The existence of theEvolutionary Research group that trains Rover operators torecognize Stromatolite like rocks on Mars also suggests thatNASA is well aware of the possible and perhaps even likelyexistence of fossil stromatolites on Mars

Chapter Two

BACKGROUND

Wikipedia gives a succinct and clear treatment on the subjectof Stromatolites Below is a summary of the essential pointsin their treatment of the topic

Stromatolites are layered bio-chemical accretionary structuresformed in shallow water by the trapping binding andcementation of sedimentary grains by microbial mats of suchmicroorganisms as cyanobacteria sp Lichen stromatolites areanother proposed mechanism of formation of some kinds oflayered rock structure that is formed above water where rockmeets air by repeated colonization of the rock by endolithiclichens It has only been recently been recognized that Taphonirocks have an intimate formative relationship with BacteriaSeveral rocks that resemble Taphoni have been imaged byCuriosity and possibly the other Rovers as well

A variety of stromatolite morphologies exists includingconical stratiform branching domal and columnar typesWhile features of some stromatolites are suggestive ofbiological activity others might be abiotic

Stromatolitic bacteria bind sediment grains together by theirexcretions forming layers that correspond to periods of highactivity This results in sometimes elaborate structuresproviding shelter and protection from a harsh environment

Stromatolites are a major constituent of the fossil record of thefirst forms of life on earth Their earliest fossils date to 35billion years ago with a peak in abundance about 125 billionyears ago

Cyanobacteria use water carbon dioxide and sunlight to createtheir food A layer of mucus often forms over mats ofcyanobacterial cells In modern microbial mats debris from thesurrounding habitat can become trapped within the mucuswhich can be cemented together by the calcium carbonate togrow thin laminations of limestone These successivelaminations accrete over time resulting in the banded patterncommon to stromatolites The domal morphology of biologicalstromatolites is postulated as the result of the vertical growthnecessary for the continued infiltration of sunlight to theorganisms for photosynthesis Layered spherical growthstructures termed oncolites are similar to stromatolitesThrombolites are poorly laminated or non-laminated clottedstructures formed by cyanobacteria

Modern stromatolites are mostly found in hypersaline lakes andmarine lagoons where extreme conditions exists Someexamples of these are Hamelin Pool Marine Nature ReserveShark Bay in Western Australia and Salty Lake Brazil

Inland stromatolites can be found in saline waters in CuatroCieacutenegas and in Lake Alchichica in Mexico The only openmarine environment where modern stromatolites are known toprosper is the Exuma Cays in the Bahamas ModernMicrobialite towers exist in Pavilion Lake British Columbiaas well as Laguna Bacalar in Mexicos southern YucataacutenPeninsula where an extensive formation of living giantmicrobialites (that is stromatolites or thrombolites) exist

Freshwater stromatolites are found in Lake Salda in southernTurkey and at Pavilion and Kelly Lakes in British ColumbiaCanada Pavilion Lake has the largest known freshwaterstromatolites and has been researched by NASA NASA the

Canadian Space Agency and numerous universities fromaround the world are collaborating on a project centered aroundstudying microbialite life in the lakes Called the Pavilion LakeResearch Project (PLRP) The end goal of that project is tobetter understand what conditions would be likely to harbor lifeon other planets

Modern living Microbialites have been discovered in an openpit pond at an abandoned asbestos mine near Clinton CreekYukon Canada These microbialites are extremely young andbegan forming soon after the mine closed in 1978

A rare type of non-lake dwelling stromatolite lives in the NettleCave at Jenolan Caves NSW Australia The cyanobacteriathere live on the surface of the limestone and are sustained bythe calcium rich dripping water

My 2012 book ldquoin search of life on Marsrdquo as well as my mostrecent one in September 2015 ldquoon Debris Flows and Veinsrdquoidentified Stromatolites as one of the likely examples of life onMars

In looking over the last book I realized that there was a needfor more clearly promoting Stromatolites fossil or otherwiseas arguably the most important example of putative life onMars

I had been collecting images from the Marsrsquo rovers since 2004so I thought that it should be easy to compare images of Earthstromatolites with what I thought would be only a few putativeMars Stromatolite Like Rocks (MSLRs) imaged by the MERand Curiosity rovers I was surprised to discover that I hadactually collected hundreds of images from the image archiveswhich could be classed as MSLRs and that it appears that

NASAJPLCaltech had itself done quite a lot of detailed workon several of the MSLRs that its rovers had encountered atMeridiani Gusev and Gale Indeed it might even beconsidered that some priority had been given to them in termsof detailed treatment in that many of the chemistrybreakthroughs so far have come from analyses of MSLRs

While assembling the comparisons it occurred to me that therewere underlying constants associated with most of the MSLRsThese were the presence of debris flows or a dark staining ofthe soil at their bases and sometimes the nearby presence ofmineral veins In addition there were some images at a fewsites (most notable being the Garden City site at Pahrump)where there was a phenomenon of veined objects (specialMSLRs) that showed a consistent association between layersof dark muddy strips with small veins anastamosing within thedark layer which separated the pale nodular layers thatappeared to consist primarily of mineral vein materials

The presence of fresh mud in some of these images suggestedto me that these might be contemporary growths and not justsnapshots of frozen events from eons ago Several images inthis book illustrate my speculation that current microbialinteractions on Mars might rationally explain many of theobservations that seem to be in conflict with the currentparadigm that there was and is no life on Mars

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

CONTENTS

1 Introduction

2 Background

3 The Stromatolite family of rocks

31 General morphological characteristics

32 Range of Earthrsquos Stromatolite Like rock types

33 Range of putative MSLRrsquos on Mars

4 Comparing Earth and putative Mars MSLRs

5 Theyrsquore all over Mars

51 Some more images from Curiosity

52 Some more images from Opportunity

53 Some more images from Spirit

6 Fossils or Living Rocks

7 Conclusions

Annex 1 Abbreviations and Definitions

Annex 2 Source URLrsquos for illustrations

Annex 3 Internet References

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

My ebook ldquoOn Debris Flowsrdquo made a case for theinvolvement of debris flows and veins in nurturing anddisseminating putative microbial life on Mars This onecontinues that theme but concentrates on showing visualsimilarities between living rocks on Earth and certain rocks onMars but also suggests that some Martian rocks may indeed beof themselves Living Rocks

The images used in this book come from two main sourcesthe NASAJPLCaltech Internet archives of raw images takenby the Mars Rovers and a miscellany of images ofMicrobialites on Earth All images were sourced from theInternet and are acknowledged in Annex 2

I processed the images from the Mars Rovers that are used inthe book The Gimp image processing programme was usedto autoequalize or white balance most of them to produce resultsthat imho more closely matches with what the human eyemight see on Mars Some images were also sharpened in Gimpto bring out features that I considered needed to be highlighted

Several of my images are 3D anaglyphs that require the readerto use RedBlue 3D anaglyph glasses Those images were allmade using the StereoPhotomaker application

The main argument against the validity of the major premiseof this book is that it is based on unproven visual similaritiesonly and that such similarities are more likely to be accidentalthan meaningful and should therefore be ignored until adequateproofs are available

That would be a perfectly rational approach if currentcapabilities of the Rovers allowed for quick definitive actionsto prove or disprove any assertion that the MSLRs were thesame as Earthrsquos stromatolites

It should be recognized however that if a visual similarity isfound in only one or very few places it should be deemed ifnot butressed by other considerations to be purely accidentalIf it consistently recurs in several widely different places onMarsrsquo surface and in widely different environments there I thinkwe should take a closer look at the phenomenon as it thenbecomes meaningful This book shows that MSLRs have beenfound by all the Mars rovers in each of the extended areas theyexamined That alone should suggest that the resemblances areprobably meaningful and not necessarily accidental

In addition the Stromatolite look alikerdquo phenomenon alsobecomes meaningful if one takes into account a number of otherfactors One such factor is that Stromatolites are nowrecognized as possibly the earliest form of life on EarthTherefore a finding that stromatolite ldquolook alikesrdquo are ofwidespread occurrence on Mars should be of highly significantimportance as a pointer to early Life there and that such lifemight be similar in some respects to ours Research in thisarea should therefore be treated with the priority intrinsic tosuch a possibility occurring

The Mars rovers are not now capable of definitively proving ifan MSLR was once living or not They dont have the analyticalchemistry or geochemistry capability to do so However itmust be pointed out that the main study that found that Galecrater had all the chemical elements that were characteristic ofEarth life as well as other prerequisites that suggestedhabitability in the past was carried out on samples taken froman area replete with putative MSLRs

In view of the above and that issues of planetary protection areof paramount importance to the future of planetary exploration

I think that NASA cannot just dismiss the possibility ofmeaningful resemblance in this case and deem the severalinstances of similarity as accidental They have to be treatedas having a fairly high probability of being meaningful

If one extrapolates from Gil Levinrsquos findings in 1976 Lifeexists on Mars right now just below the surface For it to existthere now means that it probably existed long ago in the pastand that the microbes involved in their production might stillexist on Mars surface That factor alone increases theprobability of resemblances between Stromatolites and MSLRsbeing meaningful and not accidental

It therefore seems likely that if the search for life on Mars isthe unspoken goal of the current exploration of Mars one thingthat the Relevant Authorities should be exploring there is thepresence of rocks that resemble stromatolites and examiningthem as thoroughly as the capacities of the Rovers allow

It is suggested that under ordinary situations it might beunscientific to use ldquolooks likerdquo as an important feature of aninvestigation This case is different It is currently the onlyway to get a feel for if there is a distinct possibility that Marshas Stromatolite like rocks on its surface or not It shouldtherefore be embraced until more elegant 21st century methodsbecome available

I decided to put together a simple illustrated ebook that couldbe used by most persons interested in Mars to compare imagesof rocks acquired by the Marsrsquo Rovers (which I term MartianStromatolite Like Rocks or MSLRrsquos ) with typicalStromatolites the living rocks found on Earth

I hope that this book will help to trigger a wider appreciationof the possibility that fossil and perhaps even livingstromatolites might exist in abundance on Mars

A number of facts suggest that the possibility that there mighthave been significant colonization of Marsrsquo surface byStromatolite types is not a novel one for the NASAJPLCaltechRover scientists The naming of some sites for in-depthobservations is one of the main pointers to this Such namesas the Pilbara target on Opportunity sol 88 very early in thatcampaign indicates that they were at least aware that theremight be a linkage of stromatolites with that target Similarlythe Cercedilla and Wopmay names on Earth are closely linkedwith stromatolites as well as the Pahrump name

Another pointer is that NASA is pursuing active collaborationswith Universities around the world on the study of variousaspects of stromatolite growth in locations that are well knownfor stromatolites or ancient living rocks The existence of theEvolutionary Research group that trains Rover operators torecognize Stromatolite like rocks on Mars also suggests thatNASA is well aware of the possible and perhaps even likelyexistence of fossil stromatolites on Mars

Chapter Two

BACKGROUND

Wikipedia gives a succinct and clear treatment on the subjectof Stromatolites Below is a summary of the essential pointsin their treatment of the topic

Stromatolites are layered bio-chemical accretionary structuresformed in shallow water by the trapping binding andcementation of sedimentary grains by microbial mats of suchmicroorganisms as cyanobacteria sp Lichen stromatolites areanother proposed mechanism of formation of some kinds oflayered rock structure that is formed above water where rockmeets air by repeated colonization of the rock by endolithiclichens It has only been recently been recognized that Taphonirocks have an intimate formative relationship with BacteriaSeveral rocks that resemble Taphoni have been imaged byCuriosity and possibly the other Rovers as well

A variety of stromatolite morphologies exists includingconical stratiform branching domal and columnar typesWhile features of some stromatolites are suggestive ofbiological activity others might be abiotic

Stromatolitic bacteria bind sediment grains together by theirexcretions forming layers that correspond to periods of highactivity This results in sometimes elaborate structuresproviding shelter and protection from a harsh environment

Stromatolites are a major constituent of the fossil record of thefirst forms of life on earth Their earliest fossils date to 35billion years ago with a peak in abundance about 125 billionyears ago

Cyanobacteria use water carbon dioxide and sunlight to createtheir food A layer of mucus often forms over mats ofcyanobacterial cells In modern microbial mats debris from thesurrounding habitat can become trapped within the mucuswhich can be cemented together by the calcium carbonate togrow thin laminations of limestone These successivelaminations accrete over time resulting in the banded patterncommon to stromatolites The domal morphology of biologicalstromatolites is postulated as the result of the vertical growthnecessary for the continued infiltration of sunlight to theorganisms for photosynthesis Layered spherical growthstructures termed oncolites are similar to stromatolitesThrombolites are poorly laminated or non-laminated clottedstructures formed by cyanobacteria

Modern stromatolites are mostly found in hypersaline lakes andmarine lagoons where extreme conditions exists Someexamples of these are Hamelin Pool Marine Nature ReserveShark Bay in Western Australia and Salty Lake Brazil

Inland stromatolites can be found in saline waters in CuatroCieacutenegas and in Lake Alchichica in Mexico The only openmarine environment where modern stromatolites are known toprosper is the Exuma Cays in the Bahamas ModernMicrobialite towers exist in Pavilion Lake British Columbiaas well as Laguna Bacalar in Mexicos southern YucataacutenPeninsula where an extensive formation of living giantmicrobialites (that is stromatolites or thrombolites) exist

Freshwater stromatolites are found in Lake Salda in southernTurkey and at Pavilion and Kelly Lakes in British ColumbiaCanada Pavilion Lake has the largest known freshwaterstromatolites and has been researched by NASA NASA the

Canadian Space Agency and numerous universities fromaround the world are collaborating on a project centered aroundstudying microbialite life in the lakes Called the Pavilion LakeResearch Project (PLRP) The end goal of that project is tobetter understand what conditions would be likely to harbor lifeon other planets

Modern living Microbialites have been discovered in an openpit pond at an abandoned asbestos mine near Clinton CreekYukon Canada These microbialites are extremely young andbegan forming soon after the mine closed in 1978

A rare type of non-lake dwelling stromatolite lives in the NettleCave at Jenolan Caves NSW Australia The cyanobacteriathere live on the surface of the limestone and are sustained bythe calcium rich dripping water

My 2012 book ldquoin search of life on Marsrdquo as well as my mostrecent one in September 2015 ldquoon Debris Flows and Veinsrdquoidentified Stromatolites as one of the likely examples of life onMars

In looking over the last book I realized that there was a needfor more clearly promoting Stromatolites fossil or otherwiseas arguably the most important example of putative life onMars

I had been collecting images from the Marsrsquo rovers since 2004so I thought that it should be easy to compare images of Earthstromatolites with what I thought would be only a few putativeMars Stromatolite Like Rocks (MSLRs) imaged by the MERand Curiosity rovers I was surprised to discover that I hadactually collected hundreds of images from the image archiveswhich could be classed as MSLRs and that it appears that

NASAJPLCaltech had itself done quite a lot of detailed workon several of the MSLRs that its rovers had encountered atMeridiani Gusev and Gale Indeed it might even beconsidered that some priority had been given to them in termsof detailed treatment in that many of the chemistrybreakthroughs so far have come from analyses of MSLRs

While assembling the comparisons it occurred to me that therewere underlying constants associated with most of the MSLRsThese were the presence of debris flows or a dark staining ofthe soil at their bases and sometimes the nearby presence ofmineral veins In addition there were some images at a fewsites (most notable being the Garden City site at Pahrump)where there was a phenomenon of veined objects (specialMSLRs) that showed a consistent association between layersof dark muddy strips with small veins anastamosing within thedark layer which separated the pale nodular layers thatappeared to consist primarily of mineral vein materials

The presence of fresh mud in some of these images suggestedto me that these might be contemporary growths and not justsnapshots of frozen events from eons ago Several images inthis book illustrate my speculation that current microbialinteractions on Mars might rationally explain many of theobservations that seem to be in conflict with the currentparadigm that there was and is no life on Mars

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION

My ebook ldquoOn Debris Flowsrdquo made a case for theinvolvement of debris flows and veins in nurturing anddisseminating putative microbial life on Mars This onecontinues that theme but concentrates on showing visualsimilarities between living rocks on Earth and certain rocks onMars but also suggests that some Martian rocks may indeed beof themselves Living Rocks

The images used in this book come from two main sourcesthe NASAJPLCaltech Internet archives of raw images takenby the Mars Rovers and a miscellany of images ofMicrobialites on Earth All images were sourced from theInternet and are acknowledged in Annex 2

I processed the images from the Mars Rovers that are used inthe book The Gimp image processing programme was usedto autoequalize or white balance most of them to produce resultsthat imho more closely matches with what the human eyemight see on Mars Some images were also sharpened in Gimpto bring out features that I considered needed to be highlighted

Several of my images are 3D anaglyphs that require the readerto use RedBlue 3D anaglyph glasses Those images were allmade using the StereoPhotomaker application

The main argument against the validity of the major premiseof this book is that it is based on unproven visual similaritiesonly and that such similarities are more likely to be accidentalthan meaningful and should therefore be ignored until adequateproofs are available

That would be a perfectly rational approach if currentcapabilities of the Rovers allowed for quick definitive actionsto prove or disprove any assertion that the MSLRs were thesame as Earthrsquos stromatolites

It should be recognized however that if a visual similarity isfound in only one or very few places it should be deemed ifnot butressed by other considerations to be purely accidentalIf it consistently recurs in several widely different places onMarsrsquo surface and in widely different environments there I thinkwe should take a closer look at the phenomenon as it thenbecomes meaningful This book shows that MSLRs have beenfound by all the Mars rovers in each of the extended areas theyexamined That alone should suggest that the resemblances areprobably meaningful and not necessarily accidental

In addition the Stromatolite look alikerdquo phenomenon alsobecomes meaningful if one takes into account a number of otherfactors One such factor is that Stromatolites are nowrecognized as possibly the earliest form of life on EarthTherefore a finding that stromatolite ldquolook alikesrdquo are ofwidespread occurrence on Mars should be of highly significantimportance as a pointer to early Life there and that such lifemight be similar in some respects to ours Research in thisarea should therefore be treated with the priority intrinsic tosuch a possibility occurring

The Mars rovers are not now capable of definitively proving ifan MSLR was once living or not They dont have the analyticalchemistry or geochemistry capability to do so However itmust be pointed out that the main study that found that Galecrater had all the chemical elements that were characteristic ofEarth life as well as other prerequisites that suggestedhabitability in the past was carried out on samples taken froman area replete with putative MSLRs

In view of the above and that issues of planetary protection areof paramount importance to the future of planetary exploration

I think that NASA cannot just dismiss the possibility ofmeaningful resemblance in this case and deem the severalinstances of similarity as accidental They have to be treatedas having a fairly high probability of being meaningful

If one extrapolates from Gil Levinrsquos findings in 1976 Lifeexists on Mars right now just below the surface For it to existthere now means that it probably existed long ago in the pastand that the microbes involved in their production might stillexist on Mars surface That factor alone increases theprobability of resemblances between Stromatolites and MSLRsbeing meaningful and not accidental

It therefore seems likely that if the search for life on Mars isthe unspoken goal of the current exploration of Mars one thingthat the Relevant Authorities should be exploring there is thepresence of rocks that resemble stromatolites and examiningthem as thoroughly as the capacities of the Rovers allow

It is suggested that under ordinary situations it might beunscientific to use ldquolooks likerdquo as an important feature of aninvestigation This case is different It is currently the onlyway to get a feel for if there is a distinct possibility that Marshas Stromatolite like rocks on its surface or not It shouldtherefore be embraced until more elegant 21st century methodsbecome available

I decided to put together a simple illustrated ebook that couldbe used by most persons interested in Mars to compare imagesof rocks acquired by the Marsrsquo Rovers (which I term MartianStromatolite Like Rocks or MSLRrsquos ) with typicalStromatolites the living rocks found on Earth

I hope that this book will help to trigger a wider appreciationof the possibility that fossil and perhaps even livingstromatolites might exist in abundance on Mars

A number of facts suggest that the possibility that there mighthave been significant colonization of Marsrsquo surface byStromatolite types is not a novel one for the NASAJPLCaltechRover scientists The naming of some sites for in-depthobservations is one of the main pointers to this Such namesas the Pilbara target on Opportunity sol 88 very early in thatcampaign indicates that they were at least aware that theremight be a linkage of stromatolites with that target Similarlythe Cercedilla and Wopmay names on Earth are closely linkedwith stromatolites as well as the Pahrump name

Another pointer is that NASA is pursuing active collaborationswith Universities around the world on the study of variousaspects of stromatolite growth in locations that are well knownfor stromatolites or ancient living rocks The existence of theEvolutionary Research group that trains Rover operators torecognize Stromatolite like rocks on Mars also suggests thatNASA is well aware of the possible and perhaps even likelyexistence of fossil stromatolites on Mars

Chapter Two

BACKGROUND

Wikipedia gives a succinct and clear treatment on the subjectof Stromatolites Below is a summary of the essential pointsin their treatment of the topic

Stromatolites are layered bio-chemical accretionary structuresformed in shallow water by the trapping binding andcementation of sedimentary grains by microbial mats of suchmicroorganisms as cyanobacteria sp Lichen stromatolites areanother proposed mechanism of formation of some kinds oflayered rock structure that is formed above water where rockmeets air by repeated colonization of the rock by endolithiclichens It has only been recently been recognized that Taphonirocks have an intimate formative relationship with BacteriaSeveral rocks that resemble Taphoni have been imaged byCuriosity and possibly the other Rovers as well

A variety of stromatolite morphologies exists includingconical stratiform branching domal and columnar typesWhile features of some stromatolites are suggestive ofbiological activity others might be abiotic

Stromatolitic bacteria bind sediment grains together by theirexcretions forming layers that correspond to periods of highactivity This results in sometimes elaborate structuresproviding shelter and protection from a harsh environment

Stromatolites are a major constituent of the fossil record of thefirst forms of life on earth Their earliest fossils date to 35billion years ago with a peak in abundance about 125 billionyears ago

Cyanobacteria use water carbon dioxide and sunlight to createtheir food A layer of mucus often forms over mats ofcyanobacterial cells In modern microbial mats debris from thesurrounding habitat can become trapped within the mucuswhich can be cemented together by the calcium carbonate togrow thin laminations of limestone These successivelaminations accrete over time resulting in the banded patterncommon to stromatolites The domal morphology of biologicalstromatolites is postulated as the result of the vertical growthnecessary for the continued infiltration of sunlight to theorganisms for photosynthesis Layered spherical growthstructures termed oncolites are similar to stromatolitesThrombolites are poorly laminated or non-laminated clottedstructures formed by cyanobacteria

Modern stromatolites are mostly found in hypersaline lakes andmarine lagoons where extreme conditions exists Someexamples of these are Hamelin Pool Marine Nature ReserveShark Bay in Western Australia and Salty Lake Brazil

Inland stromatolites can be found in saline waters in CuatroCieacutenegas and in Lake Alchichica in Mexico The only openmarine environment where modern stromatolites are known toprosper is the Exuma Cays in the Bahamas ModernMicrobialite towers exist in Pavilion Lake British Columbiaas well as Laguna Bacalar in Mexicos southern YucataacutenPeninsula where an extensive formation of living giantmicrobialites (that is stromatolites or thrombolites) exist

Freshwater stromatolites are found in Lake Salda in southernTurkey and at Pavilion and Kelly Lakes in British ColumbiaCanada Pavilion Lake has the largest known freshwaterstromatolites and has been researched by NASA NASA the

Canadian Space Agency and numerous universities fromaround the world are collaborating on a project centered aroundstudying microbialite life in the lakes Called the Pavilion LakeResearch Project (PLRP) The end goal of that project is tobetter understand what conditions would be likely to harbor lifeon other planets

Modern living Microbialites have been discovered in an openpit pond at an abandoned asbestos mine near Clinton CreekYukon Canada These microbialites are extremely young andbegan forming soon after the mine closed in 1978

A rare type of non-lake dwelling stromatolite lives in the NettleCave at Jenolan Caves NSW Australia The cyanobacteriathere live on the surface of the limestone and are sustained bythe calcium rich dripping water

My 2012 book ldquoin search of life on Marsrdquo as well as my mostrecent one in September 2015 ldquoon Debris Flows and Veinsrdquoidentified Stromatolites as one of the likely examples of life onMars

In looking over the last book I realized that there was a needfor more clearly promoting Stromatolites fossil or otherwiseas arguably the most important example of putative life onMars

I had been collecting images from the Marsrsquo rovers since 2004so I thought that it should be easy to compare images of Earthstromatolites with what I thought would be only a few putativeMars Stromatolite Like Rocks (MSLRs) imaged by the MERand Curiosity rovers I was surprised to discover that I hadactually collected hundreds of images from the image archiveswhich could be classed as MSLRs and that it appears that

NASAJPLCaltech had itself done quite a lot of detailed workon several of the MSLRs that its rovers had encountered atMeridiani Gusev and Gale Indeed it might even beconsidered that some priority had been given to them in termsof detailed treatment in that many of the chemistrybreakthroughs so far have come from analyses of MSLRs

While assembling the comparisons it occurred to me that therewere underlying constants associated with most of the MSLRsThese were the presence of debris flows or a dark staining ofthe soil at their bases and sometimes the nearby presence ofmineral veins In addition there were some images at a fewsites (most notable being the Garden City site at Pahrump)where there was a phenomenon of veined objects (specialMSLRs) that showed a consistent association between layersof dark muddy strips with small veins anastamosing within thedark layer which separated the pale nodular layers thatappeared to consist primarily of mineral vein materials

The presence of fresh mud in some of these images suggestedto me that these might be contemporary growths and not justsnapshots of frozen events from eons ago Several images inthis book illustrate my speculation that current microbialinteractions on Mars might rationally explain many of theobservations that seem to be in conflict with the currentparadigm that there was and is no life on Mars

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

That would be a perfectly rational approach if currentcapabilities of the Rovers allowed for quick definitive actionsto prove or disprove any assertion that the MSLRs were thesame as Earthrsquos stromatolites

It should be recognized however that if a visual similarity isfound in only one or very few places it should be deemed ifnot butressed by other considerations to be purely accidentalIf it consistently recurs in several widely different places onMarsrsquo surface and in widely different environments there I thinkwe should take a closer look at the phenomenon as it thenbecomes meaningful This book shows that MSLRs have beenfound by all the Mars rovers in each of the extended areas theyexamined That alone should suggest that the resemblances areprobably meaningful and not necessarily accidental

In addition the Stromatolite look alikerdquo phenomenon alsobecomes meaningful if one takes into account a number of otherfactors One such factor is that Stromatolites are nowrecognized as possibly the earliest form of life on EarthTherefore a finding that stromatolite ldquolook alikesrdquo are ofwidespread occurrence on Mars should be of highly significantimportance as a pointer to early Life there and that such lifemight be similar in some respects to ours Research in thisarea should therefore be treated with the priority intrinsic tosuch a possibility occurring

The Mars rovers are not now capable of definitively proving ifan MSLR was once living or not They dont have the analyticalchemistry or geochemistry capability to do so However itmust be pointed out that the main study that found that Galecrater had all the chemical elements that were characteristic ofEarth life as well as other prerequisites that suggestedhabitability in the past was carried out on samples taken froman area replete with putative MSLRs

In view of the above and that issues of planetary protection areof paramount importance to the future of planetary exploration

I think that NASA cannot just dismiss the possibility ofmeaningful resemblance in this case and deem the severalinstances of similarity as accidental They have to be treatedas having a fairly high probability of being meaningful

If one extrapolates from Gil Levinrsquos findings in 1976 Lifeexists on Mars right now just below the surface For it to existthere now means that it probably existed long ago in the pastand that the microbes involved in their production might stillexist on Mars surface That factor alone increases theprobability of resemblances between Stromatolites and MSLRsbeing meaningful and not accidental

It therefore seems likely that if the search for life on Mars isthe unspoken goal of the current exploration of Mars one thingthat the Relevant Authorities should be exploring there is thepresence of rocks that resemble stromatolites and examiningthem as thoroughly as the capacities of the Rovers allow

It is suggested that under ordinary situations it might beunscientific to use ldquolooks likerdquo as an important feature of aninvestigation This case is different It is currently the onlyway to get a feel for if there is a distinct possibility that Marshas Stromatolite like rocks on its surface or not It shouldtherefore be embraced until more elegant 21st century methodsbecome available

I decided to put together a simple illustrated ebook that couldbe used by most persons interested in Mars to compare imagesof rocks acquired by the Marsrsquo Rovers (which I term MartianStromatolite Like Rocks or MSLRrsquos ) with typicalStromatolites the living rocks found on Earth

I hope that this book will help to trigger a wider appreciationof the possibility that fossil and perhaps even livingstromatolites might exist in abundance on Mars

A number of facts suggest that the possibility that there mighthave been significant colonization of Marsrsquo surface byStromatolite types is not a novel one for the NASAJPLCaltechRover scientists The naming of some sites for in-depthobservations is one of the main pointers to this Such namesas the Pilbara target on Opportunity sol 88 very early in thatcampaign indicates that they were at least aware that theremight be a linkage of stromatolites with that target Similarlythe Cercedilla and Wopmay names on Earth are closely linkedwith stromatolites as well as the Pahrump name

Another pointer is that NASA is pursuing active collaborationswith Universities around the world on the study of variousaspects of stromatolite growth in locations that are well knownfor stromatolites or ancient living rocks The existence of theEvolutionary Research group that trains Rover operators torecognize Stromatolite like rocks on Mars also suggests thatNASA is well aware of the possible and perhaps even likelyexistence of fossil stromatolites on Mars

Chapter Two

BACKGROUND

Wikipedia gives a succinct and clear treatment on the subjectof Stromatolites Below is a summary of the essential pointsin their treatment of the topic

Stromatolites are layered bio-chemical accretionary structuresformed in shallow water by the trapping binding andcementation of sedimentary grains by microbial mats of suchmicroorganisms as cyanobacteria sp Lichen stromatolites areanother proposed mechanism of formation of some kinds oflayered rock structure that is formed above water where rockmeets air by repeated colonization of the rock by endolithiclichens It has only been recently been recognized that Taphonirocks have an intimate formative relationship with BacteriaSeveral rocks that resemble Taphoni have been imaged byCuriosity and possibly the other Rovers as well

A variety of stromatolite morphologies exists includingconical stratiform branching domal and columnar typesWhile features of some stromatolites are suggestive ofbiological activity others might be abiotic

Stromatolitic bacteria bind sediment grains together by theirexcretions forming layers that correspond to periods of highactivity This results in sometimes elaborate structuresproviding shelter and protection from a harsh environment

Stromatolites are a major constituent of the fossil record of thefirst forms of life on earth Their earliest fossils date to 35billion years ago with a peak in abundance about 125 billionyears ago

Cyanobacteria use water carbon dioxide and sunlight to createtheir food A layer of mucus often forms over mats ofcyanobacterial cells In modern microbial mats debris from thesurrounding habitat can become trapped within the mucuswhich can be cemented together by the calcium carbonate togrow thin laminations of limestone These successivelaminations accrete over time resulting in the banded patterncommon to stromatolites The domal morphology of biologicalstromatolites is postulated as the result of the vertical growthnecessary for the continued infiltration of sunlight to theorganisms for photosynthesis Layered spherical growthstructures termed oncolites are similar to stromatolitesThrombolites are poorly laminated or non-laminated clottedstructures formed by cyanobacteria

Modern stromatolites are mostly found in hypersaline lakes andmarine lagoons where extreme conditions exists Someexamples of these are Hamelin Pool Marine Nature ReserveShark Bay in Western Australia and Salty Lake Brazil

Inland stromatolites can be found in saline waters in CuatroCieacutenegas and in Lake Alchichica in Mexico The only openmarine environment where modern stromatolites are known toprosper is the Exuma Cays in the Bahamas ModernMicrobialite towers exist in Pavilion Lake British Columbiaas well as Laguna Bacalar in Mexicos southern YucataacutenPeninsula where an extensive formation of living giantmicrobialites (that is stromatolites or thrombolites) exist

Freshwater stromatolites are found in Lake Salda in southernTurkey and at Pavilion and Kelly Lakes in British ColumbiaCanada Pavilion Lake has the largest known freshwaterstromatolites and has been researched by NASA NASA the

Canadian Space Agency and numerous universities fromaround the world are collaborating on a project centered aroundstudying microbialite life in the lakes Called the Pavilion LakeResearch Project (PLRP) The end goal of that project is tobetter understand what conditions would be likely to harbor lifeon other planets

Modern living Microbialites have been discovered in an openpit pond at an abandoned asbestos mine near Clinton CreekYukon Canada These microbialites are extremely young andbegan forming soon after the mine closed in 1978

A rare type of non-lake dwelling stromatolite lives in the NettleCave at Jenolan Caves NSW Australia The cyanobacteriathere live on the surface of the limestone and are sustained bythe calcium rich dripping water

My 2012 book ldquoin search of life on Marsrdquo as well as my mostrecent one in September 2015 ldquoon Debris Flows and Veinsrdquoidentified Stromatolites as one of the likely examples of life onMars

In looking over the last book I realized that there was a needfor more clearly promoting Stromatolites fossil or otherwiseas arguably the most important example of putative life onMars

I had been collecting images from the Marsrsquo rovers since 2004so I thought that it should be easy to compare images of Earthstromatolites with what I thought would be only a few putativeMars Stromatolite Like Rocks (MSLRs) imaged by the MERand Curiosity rovers I was surprised to discover that I hadactually collected hundreds of images from the image archiveswhich could be classed as MSLRs and that it appears that

NASAJPLCaltech had itself done quite a lot of detailed workon several of the MSLRs that its rovers had encountered atMeridiani Gusev and Gale Indeed it might even beconsidered that some priority had been given to them in termsof detailed treatment in that many of the chemistrybreakthroughs so far have come from analyses of MSLRs

While assembling the comparisons it occurred to me that therewere underlying constants associated with most of the MSLRsThese were the presence of debris flows or a dark staining ofthe soil at their bases and sometimes the nearby presence ofmineral veins In addition there were some images at a fewsites (most notable being the Garden City site at Pahrump)where there was a phenomenon of veined objects (specialMSLRs) that showed a consistent association between layersof dark muddy strips with small veins anastamosing within thedark layer which separated the pale nodular layers thatappeared to consist primarily of mineral vein materials

The presence of fresh mud in some of these images suggestedto me that these might be contemporary growths and not justsnapshots of frozen events from eons ago Several images inthis book illustrate my speculation that current microbialinteractions on Mars might rationally explain many of theobservations that seem to be in conflict with the currentparadigm that there was and is no life on Mars

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

I think that NASA cannot just dismiss the possibility ofmeaningful resemblance in this case and deem the severalinstances of similarity as accidental They have to be treatedas having a fairly high probability of being meaningful

If one extrapolates from Gil Levinrsquos findings in 1976 Lifeexists on Mars right now just below the surface For it to existthere now means that it probably existed long ago in the pastand that the microbes involved in their production might stillexist on Mars surface That factor alone increases theprobability of resemblances between Stromatolites and MSLRsbeing meaningful and not accidental

It therefore seems likely that if the search for life on Mars isthe unspoken goal of the current exploration of Mars one thingthat the Relevant Authorities should be exploring there is thepresence of rocks that resemble stromatolites and examiningthem as thoroughly as the capacities of the Rovers allow

It is suggested that under ordinary situations it might beunscientific to use ldquolooks likerdquo as an important feature of aninvestigation This case is different It is currently the onlyway to get a feel for if there is a distinct possibility that Marshas Stromatolite like rocks on its surface or not It shouldtherefore be embraced until more elegant 21st century methodsbecome available

I decided to put together a simple illustrated ebook that couldbe used by most persons interested in Mars to compare imagesof rocks acquired by the Marsrsquo Rovers (which I term MartianStromatolite Like Rocks or MSLRrsquos ) with typicalStromatolites the living rocks found on Earth

I hope that this book will help to trigger a wider appreciationof the possibility that fossil and perhaps even livingstromatolites might exist in abundance on Mars

A number of facts suggest that the possibility that there mighthave been significant colonization of Marsrsquo surface byStromatolite types is not a novel one for the NASAJPLCaltechRover scientists The naming of some sites for in-depthobservations is one of the main pointers to this Such namesas the Pilbara target on Opportunity sol 88 very early in thatcampaign indicates that they were at least aware that theremight be a linkage of stromatolites with that target Similarlythe Cercedilla and Wopmay names on Earth are closely linkedwith stromatolites as well as the Pahrump name

Another pointer is that NASA is pursuing active collaborationswith Universities around the world on the study of variousaspects of stromatolite growth in locations that are well knownfor stromatolites or ancient living rocks The existence of theEvolutionary Research group that trains Rover operators torecognize Stromatolite like rocks on Mars also suggests thatNASA is well aware of the possible and perhaps even likelyexistence of fossil stromatolites on Mars

Chapter Two

BACKGROUND

Wikipedia gives a succinct and clear treatment on the subjectof Stromatolites Below is a summary of the essential pointsin their treatment of the topic

Stromatolites are layered bio-chemical accretionary structuresformed in shallow water by the trapping binding andcementation of sedimentary grains by microbial mats of suchmicroorganisms as cyanobacteria sp Lichen stromatolites areanother proposed mechanism of formation of some kinds oflayered rock structure that is formed above water where rockmeets air by repeated colonization of the rock by endolithiclichens It has only been recently been recognized that Taphonirocks have an intimate formative relationship with BacteriaSeveral rocks that resemble Taphoni have been imaged byCuriosity and possibly the other Rovers as well

A variety of stromatolite morphologies exists includingconical stratiform branching domal and columnar typesWhile features of some stromatolites are suggestive ofbiological activity others might be abiotic

Stromatolitic bacteria bind sediment grains together by theirexcretions forming layers that correspond to periods of highactivity This results in sometimes elaborate structuresproviding shelter and protection from a harsh environment

Stromatolites are a major constituent of the fossil record of thefirst forms of life on earth Their earliest fossils date to 35billion years ago with a peak in abundance about 125 billionyears ago

Cyanobacteria use water carbon dioxide and sunlight to createtheir food A layer of mucus often forms over mats ofcyanobacterial cells In modern microbial mats debris from thesurrounding habitat can become trapped within the mucuswhich can be cemented together by the calcium carbonate togrow thin laminations of limestone These successivelaminations accrete over time resulting in the banded patterncommon to stromatolites The domal morphology of biologicalstromatolites is postulated as the result of the vertical growthnecessary for the continued infiltration of sunlight to theorganisms for photosynthesis Layered spherical growthstructures termed oncolites are similar to stromatolitesThrombolites are poorly laminated or non-laminated clottedstructures formed by cyanobacteria

Modern stromatolites are mostly found in hypersaline lakes andmarine lagoons where extreme conditions exists Someexamples of these are Hamelin Pool Marine Nature ReserveShark Bay in Western Australia and Salty Lake Brazil

Inland stromatolites can be found in saline waters in CuatroCieacutenegas and in Lake Alchichica in Mexico The only openmarine environment where modern stromatolites are known toprosper is the Exuma Cays in the Bahamas ModernMicrobialite towers exist in Pavilion Lake British Columbiaas well as Laguna Bacalar in Mexicos southern YucataacutenPeninsula where an extensive formation of living giantmicrobialites (that is stromatolites or thrombolites) exist

Freshwater stromatolites are found in Lake Salda in southernTurkey and at Pavilion and Kelly Lakes in British ColumbiaCanada Pavilion Lake has the largest known freshwaterstromatolites and has been researched by NASA NASA the

Canadian Space Agency and numerous universities fromaround the world are collaborating on a project centered aroundstudying microbialite life in the lakes Called the Pavilion LakeResearch Project (PLRP) The end goal of that project is tobetter understand what conditions would be likely to harbor lifeon other planets

Modern living Microbialites have been discovered in an openpit pond at an abandoned asbestos mine near Clinton CreekYukon Canada These microbialites are extremely young andbegan forming soon after the mine closed in 1978

A rare type of non-lake dwelling stromatolite lives in the NettleCave at Jenolan Caves NSW Australia The cyanobacteriathere live on the surface of the limestone and are sustained bythe calcium rich dripping water

My 2012 book ldquoin search of life on Marsrdquo as well as my mostrecent one in September 2015 ldquoon Debris Flows and Veinsrdquoidentified Stromatolites as one of the likely examples of life onMars

In looking over the last book I realized that there was a needfor more clearly promoting Stromatolites fossil or otherwiseas arguably the most important example of putative life onMars

I had been collecting images from the Marsrsquo rovers since 2004so I thought that it should be easy to compare images of Earthstromatolites with what I thought would be only a few putativeMars Stromatolite Like Rocks (MSLRs) imaged by the MERand Curiosity rovers I was surprised to discover that I hadactually collected hundreds of images from the image archiveswhich could be classed as MSLRs and that it appears that

NASAJPLCaltech had itself done quite a lot of detailed workon several of the MSLRs that its rovers had encountered atMeridiani Gusev and Gale Indeed it might even beconsidered that some priority had been given to them in termsof detailed treatment in that many of the chemistrybreakthroughs so far have come from analyses of MSLRs

While assembling the comparisons it occurred to me that therewere underlying constants associated with most of the MSLRsThese were the presence of debris flows or a dark staining ofthe soil at their bases and sometimes the nearby presence ofmineral veins In addition there were some images at a fewsites (most notable being the Garden City site at Pahrump)where there was a phenomenon of veined objects (specialMSLRs) that showed a consistent association between layersof dark muddy strips with small veins anastamosing within thedark layer which separated the pale nodular layers thatappeared to consist primarily of mineral vein materials

The presence of fresh mud in some of these images suggestedto me that these might be contemporary growths and not justsnapshots of frozen events from eons ago Several images inthis book illustrate my speculation that current microbialinteractions on Mars might rationally explain many of theobservations that seem to be in conflict with the currentparadigm that there was and is no life on Mars

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

A number of facts suggest that the possibility that there mighthave been significant colonization of Marsrsquo surface byStromatolite types is not a novel one for the NASAJPLCaltechRover scientists The naming of some sites for in-depthobservations is one of the main pointers to this Such namesas the Pilbara target on Opportunity sol 88 very early in thatcampaign indicates that they were at least aware that theremight be a linkage of stromatolites with that target Similarlythe Cercedilla and Wopmay names on Earth are closely linkedwith stromatolites as well as the Pahrump name

Another pointer is that NASA is pursuing active collaborationswith Universities around the world on the study of variousaspects of stromatolite growth in locations that are well knownfor stromatolites or ancient living rocks The existence of theEvolutionary Research group that trains Rover operators torecognize Stromatolite like rocks on Mars also suggests thatNASA is well aware of the possible and perhaps even likelyexistence of fossil stromatolites on Mars

Chapter Two

BACKGROUND

Wikipedia gives a succinct and clear treatment on the subjectof Stromatolites Below is a summary of the essential pointsin their treatment of the topic

Stromatolites are layered bio-chemical accretionary structuresformed in shallow water by the trapping binding andcementation of sedimentary grains by microbial mats of suchmicroorganisms as cyanobacteria sp Lichen stromatolites areanother proposed mechanism of formation of some kinds oflayered rock structure that is formed above water where rockmeets air by repeated colonization of the rock by endolithiclichens It has only been recently been recognized that Taphonirocks have an intimate formative relationship with BacteriaSeveral rocks that resemble Taphoni have been imaged byCuriosity and possibly the other Rovers as well

A variety of stromatolite morphologies exists includingconical stratiform branching domal and columnar typesWhile features of some stromatolites are suggestive ofbiological activity others might be abiotic

Stromatolitic bacteria bind sediment grains together by theirexcretions forming layers that correspond to periods of highactivity This results in sometimes elaborate structuresproviding shelter and protection from a harsh environment

Stromatolites are a major constituent of the fossil record of thefirst forms of life on earth Their earliest fossils date to 35billion years ago with a peak in abundance about 125 billionyears ago

Cyanobacteria use water carbon dioxide and sunlight to createtheir food A layer of mucus often forms over mats ofcyanobacterial cells In modern microbial mats debris from thesurrounding habitat can become trapped within the mucuswhich can be cemented together by the calcium carbonate togrow thin laminations of limestone These successivelaminations accrete over time resulting in the banded patterncommon to stromatolites The domal morphology of biologicalstromatolites is postulated as the result of the vertical growthnecessary for the continued infiltration of sunlight to theorganisms for photosynthesis Layered spherical growthstructures termed oncolites are similar to stromatolitesThrombolites are poorly laminated or non-laminated clottedstructures formed by cyanobacteria

Modern stromatolites are mostly found in hypersaline lakes andmarine lagoons where extreme conditions exists Someexamples of these are Hamelin Pool Marine Nature ReserveShark Bay in Western Australia and Salty Lake Brazil

Inland stromatolites can be found in saline waters in CuatroCieacutenegas and in Lake Alchichica in Mexico The only openmarine environment where modern stromatolites are known toprosper is the Exuma Cays in the Bahamas ModernMicrobialite towers exist in Pavilion Lake British Columbiaas well as Laguna Bacalar in Mexicos southern YucataacutenPeninsula where an extensive formation of living giantmicrobialites (that is stromatolites or thrombolites) exist

Freshwater stromatolites are found in Lake Salda in southernTurkey and at Pavilion and Kelly Lakes in British ColumbiaCanada Pavilion Lake has the largest known freshwaterstromatolites and has been researched by NASA NASA the

Canadian Space Agency and numerous universities fromaround the world are collaborating on a project centered aroundstudying microbialite life in the lakes Called the Pavilion LakeResearch Project (PLRP) The end goal of that project is tobetter understand what conditions would be likely to harbor lifeon other planets

Modern living Microbialites have been discovered in an openpit pond at an abandoned asbestos mine near Clinton CreekYukon Canada These microbialites are extremely young andbegan forming soon after the mine closed in 1978

A rare type of non-lake dwelling stromatolite lives in the NettleCave at Jenolan Caves NSW Australia The cyanobacteriathere live on the surface of the limestone and are sustained bythe calcium rich dripping water

My 2012 book ldquoin search of life on Marsrdquo as well as my mostrecent one in September 2015 ldquoon Debris Flows and Veinsrdquoidentified Stromatolites as one of the likely examples of life onMars

In looking over the last book I realized that there was a needfor more clearly promoting Stromatolites fossil or otherwiseas arguably the most important example of putative life onMars

I had been collecting images from the Marsrsquo rovers since 2004so I thought that it should be easy to compare images of Earthstromatolites with what I thought would be only a few putativeMars Stromatolite Like Rocks (MSLRs) imaged by the MERand Curiosity rovers I was surprised to discover that I hadactually collected hundreds of images from the image archiveswhich could be classed as MSLRs and that it appears that

NASAJPLCaltech had itself done quite a lot of detailed workon several of the MSLRs that its rovers had encountered atMeridiani Gusev and Gale Indeed it might even beconsidered that some priority had been given to them in termsof detailed treatment in that many of the chemistrybreakthroughs so far have come from analyses of MSLRs

While assembling the comparisons it occurred to me that therewere underlying constants associated with most of the MSLRsThese were the presence of debris flows or a dark staining ofthe soil at their bases and sometimes the nearby presence ofmineral veins In addition there were some images at a fewsites (most notable being the Garden City site at Pahrump)where there was a phenomenon of veined objects (specialMSLRs) that showed a consistent association between layersof dark muddy strips with small veins anastamosing within thedark layer which separated the pale nodular layers thatappeared to consist primarily of mineral vein materials

The presence of fresh mud in some of these images suggestedto me that these might be contemporary growths and not justsnapshots of frozen events from eons ago Several images inthis book illustrate my speculation that current microbialinteractions on Mars might rationally explain many of theobservations that seem to be in conflict with the currentparadigm that there was and is no life on Mars

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Chapter Two

BACKGROUND

Wikipedia gives a succinct and clear treatment on the subjectof Stromatolites Below is a summary of the essential pointsin their treatment of the topic

Stromatolites are layered bio-chemical accretionary structuresformed in shallow water by the trapping binding andcementation of sedimentary grains by microbial mats of suchmicroorganisms as cyanobacteria sp Lichen stromatolites areanother proposed mechanism of formation of some kinds oflayered rock structure that is formed above water where rockmeets air by repeated colonization of the rock by endolithiclichens It has only been recently been recognized that Taphonirocks have an intimate formative relationship with BacteriaSeveral rocks that resemble Taphoni have been imaged byCuriosity and possibly the other Rovers as well

A variety of stromatolite morphologies exists includingconical stratiform branching domal and columnar typesWhile features of some stromatolites are suggestive ofbiological activity others might be abiotic

Stromatolitic bacteria bind sediment grains together by theirexcretions forming layers that correspond to periods of highactivity This results in sometimes elaborate structuresproviding shelter and protection from a harsh environment

Stromatolites are a major constituent of the fossil record of thefirst forms of life on earth Their earliest fossils date to 35billion years ago with a peak in abundance about 125 billionyears ago

Cyanobacteria use water carbon dioxide and sunlight to createtheir food A layer of mucus often forms over mats ofcyanobacterial cells In modern microbial mats debris from thesurrounding habitat can become trapped within the mucuswhich can be cemented together by the calcium carbonate togrow thin laminations of limestone These successivelaminations accrete over time resulting in the banded patterncommon to stromatolites The domal morphology of biologicalstromatolites is postulated as the result of the vertical growthnecessary for the continued infiltration of sunlight to theorganisms for photosynthesis Layered spherical growthstructures termed oncolites are similar to stromatolitesThrombolites are poorly laminated or non-laminated clottedstructures formed by cyanobacteria

Modern stromatolites are mostly found in hypersaline lakes andmarine lagoons where extreme conditions exists Someexamples of these are Hamelin Pool Marine Nature ReserveShark Bay in Western Australia and Salty Lake Brazil

Inland stromatolites can be found in saline waters in CuatroCieacutenegas and in Lake Alchichica in Mexico The only openmarine environment where modern stromatolites are known toprosper is the Exuma Cays in the Bahamas ModernMicrobialite towers exist in Pavilion Lake British Columbiaas well as Laguna Bacalar in Mexicos southern YucataacutenPeninsula where an extensive formation of living giantmicrobialites (that is stromatolites or thrombolites) exist

Freshwater stromatolites are found in Lake Salda in southernTurkey and at Pavilion and Kelly Lakes in British ColumbiaCanada Pavilion Lake has the largest known freshwaterstromatolites and has been researched by NASA NASA the

Canadian Space Agency and numerous universities fromaround the world are collaborating on a project centered aroundstudying microbialite life in the lakes Called the Pavilion LakeResearch Project (PLRP) The end goal of that project is tobetter understand what conditions would be likely to harbor lifeon other planets

Modern living Microbialites have been discovered in an openpit pond at an abandoned asbestos mine near Clinton CreekYukon Canada These microbialites are extremely young andbegan forming soon after the mine closed in 1978

A rare type of non-lake dwelling stromatolite lives in the NettleCave at Jenolan Caves NSW Australia The cyanobacteriathere live on the surface of the limestone and are sustained bythe calcium rich dripping water

My 2012 book ldquoin search of life on Marsrdquo as well as my mostrecent one in September 2015 ldquoon Debris Flows and Veinsrdquoidentified Stromatolites as one of the likely examples of life onMars

In looking over the last book I realized that there was a needfor more clearly promoting Stromatolites fossil or otherwiseas arguably the most important example of putative life onMars

I had been collecting images from the Marsrsquo rovers since 2004so I thought that it should be easy to compare images of Earthstromatolites with what I thought would be only a few putativeMars Stromatolite Like Rocks (MSLRs) imaged by the MERand Curiosity rovers I was surprised to discover that I hadactually collected hundreds of images from the image archiveswhich could be classed as MSLRs and that it appears that

NASAJPLCaltech had itself done quite a lot of detailed workon several of the MSLRs that its rovers had encountered atMeridiani Gusev and Gale Indeed it might even beconsidered that some priority had been given to them in termsof detailed treatment in that many of the chemistrybreakthroughs so far have come from analyses of MSLRs

While assembling the comparisons it occurred to me that therewere underlying constants associated with most of the MSLRsThese were the presence of debris flows or a dark staining ofthe soil at their bases and sometimes the nearby presence ofmineral veins In addition there were some images at a fewsites (most notable being the Garden City site at Pahrump)where there was a phenomenon of veined objects (specialMSLRs) that showed a consistent association between layersof dark muddy strips with small veins anastamosing within thedark layer which separated the pale nodular layers thatappeared to consist primarily of mineral vein materials

The presence of fresh mud in some of these images suggestedto me that these might be contemporary growths and not justsnapshots of frozen events from eons ago Several images inthis book illustrate my speculation that current microbialinteractions on Mars might rationally explain many of theobservations that seem to be in conflict with the currentparadigm that there was and is no life on Mars

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Cyanobacteria use water carbon dioxide and sunlight to createtheir food A layer of mucus often forms over mats ofcyanobacterial cells In modern microbial mats debris from thesurrounding habitat can become trapped within the mucuswhich can be cemented together by the calcium carbonate togrow thin laminations of limestone These successivelaminations accrete over time resulting in the banded patterncommon to stromatolites The domal morphology of biologicalstromatolites is postulated as the result of the vertical growthnecessary for the continued infiltration of sunlight to theorganisms for photosynthesis Layered spherical growthstructures termed oncolites are similar to stromatolitesThrombolites are poorly laminated or non-laminated clottedstructures formed by cyanobacteria

Modern stromatolites are mostly found in hypersaline lakes andmarine lagoons where extreme conditions exists Someexamples of these are Hamelin Pool Marine Nature ReserveShark Bay in Western Australia and Salty Lake Brazil

Inland stromatolites can be found in saline waters in CuatroCieacutenegas and in Lake Alchichica in Mexico The only openmarine environment where modern stromatolites are known toprosper is the Exuma Cays in the Bahamas ModernMicrobialite towers exist in Pavilion Lake British Columbiaas well as Laguna Bacalar in Mexicos southern YucataacutenPeninsula where an extensive formation of living giantmicrobialites (that is stromatolites or thrombolites) exist

Freshwater stromatolites are found in Lake Salda in southernTurkey and at Pavilion and Kelly Lakes in British ColumbiaCanada Pavilion Lake has the largest known freshwaterstromatolites and has been researched by NASA NASA the

Canadian Space Agency and numerous universities fromaround the world are collaborating on a project centered aroundstudying microbialite life in the lakes Called the Pavilion LakeResearch Project (PLRP) The end goal of that project is tobetter understand what conditions would be likely to harbor lifeon other planets

Modern living Microbialites have been discovered in an openpit pond at an abandoned asbestos mine near Clinton CreekYukon Canada These microbialites are extremely young andbegan forming soon after the mine closed in 1978

A rare type of non-lake dwelling stromatolite lives in the NettleCave at Jenolan Caves NSW Australia The cyanobacteriathere live on the surface of the limestone and are sustained bythe calcium rich dripping water

My 2012 book ldquoin search of life on Marsrdquo as well as my mostrecent one in September 2015 ldquoon Debris Flows and Veinsrdquoidentified Stromatolites as one of the likely examples of life onMars

In looking over the last book I realized that there was a needfor more clearly promoting Stromatolites fossil or otherwiseas arguably the most important example of putative life onMars

I had been collecting images from the Marsrsquo rovers since 2004so I thought that it should be easy to compare images of Earthstromatolites with what I thought would be only a few putativeMars Stromatolite Like Rocks (MSLRs) imaged by the MERand Curiosity rovers I was surprised to discover that I hadactually collected hundreds of images from the image archiveswhich could be classed as MSLRs and that it appears that

NASAJPLCaltech had itself done quite a lot of detailed workon several of the MSLRs that its rovers had encountered atMeridiani Gusev and Gale Indeed it might even beconsidered that some priority had been given to them in termsof detailed treatment in that many of the chemistrybreakthroughs so far have come from analyses of MSLRs

While assembling the comparisons it occurred to me that therewere underlying constants associated with most of the MSLRsThese were the presence of debris flows or a dark staining ofthe soil at their bases and sometimes the nearby presence ofmineral veins In addition there were some images at a fewsites (most notable being the Garden City site at Pahrump)where there was a phenomenon of veined objects (specialMSLRs) that showed a consistent association between layersof dark muddy strips with small veins anastamosing within thedark layer which separated the pale nodular layers thatappeared to consist primarily of mineral vein materials

The presence of fresh mud in some of these images suggestedto me that these might be contemporary growths and not justsnapshots of frozen events from eons ago Several images inthis book illustrate my speculation that current microbialinteractions on Mars might rationally explain many of theobservations that seem to be in conflict with the currentparadigm that there was and is no life on Mars

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Canadian Space Agency and numerous universities fromaround the world are collaborating on a project centered aroundstudying microbialite life in the lakes Called the Pavilion LakeResearch Project (PLRP) The end goal of that project is tobetter understand what conditions would be likely to harbor lifeon other planets

Modern living Microbialites have been discovered in an openpit pond at an abandoned asbestos mine near Clinton CreekYukon Canada These microbialites are extremely young andbegan forming soon after the mine closed in 1978

A rare type of non-lake dwelling stromatolite lives in the NettleCave at Jenolan Caves NSW Australia The cyanobacteriathere live on the surface of the limestone and are sustained bythe calcium rich dripping water

My 2012 book ldquoin search of life on Marsrdquo as well as my mostrecent one in September 2015 ldquoon Debris Flows and Veinsrdquoidentified Stromatolites as one of the likely examples of life onMars

In looking over the last book I realized that there was a needfor more clearly promoting Stromatolites fossil or otherwiseas arguably the most important example of putative life onMars

I had been collecting images from the Marsrsquo rovers since 2004so I thought that it should be easy to compare images of Earthstromatolites with what I thought would be only a few putativeMars Stromatolite Like Rocks (MSLRs) imaged by the MERand Curiosity rovers I was surprised to discover that I hadactually collected hundreds of images from the image archiveswhich could be classed as MSLRs and that it appears that

NASAJPLCaltech had itself done quite a lot of detailed workon several of the MSLRs that its rovers had encountered atMeridiani Gusev and Gale Indeed it might even beconsidered that some priority had been given to them in termsof detailed treatment in that many of the chemistrybreakthroughs so far have come from analyses of MSLRs

While assembling the comparisons it occurred to me that therewere underlying constants associated with most of the MSLRsThese were the presence of debris flows or a dark staining ofthe soil at their bases and sometimes the nearby presence ofmineral veins In addition there were some images at a fewsites (most notable being the Garden City site at Pahrump)where there was a phenomenon of veined objects (specialMSLRs) that showed a consistent association between layersof dark muddy strips with small veins anastamosing within thedark layer which separated the pale nodular layers thatappeared to consist primarily of mineral vein materials

The presence of fresh mud in some of these images suggestedto me that these might be contemporary growths and not justsnapshots of frozen events from eons ago Several images inthis book illustrate my speculation that current microbialinteractions on Mars might rationally explain many of theobservations that seem to be in conflict with the currentparadigm that there was and is no life on Mars

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

NASAJPLCaltech had itself done quite a lot of detailed workon several of the MSLRs that its rovers had encountered atMeridiani Gusev and Gale Indeed it might even beconsidered that some priority had been given to them in termsof detailed treatment in that many of the chemistrybreakthroughs so far have come from analyses of MSLRs

While assembling the comparisons it occurred to me that therewere underlying constants associated with most of the MSLRsThese were the presence of debris flows or a dark staining ofthe soil at their bases and sometimes the nearby presence ofmineral veins In addition there were some images at a fewsites (most notable being the Garden City site at Pahrump)where there was a phenomenon of veined objects (specialMSLRs) that showed a consistent association between layersof dark muddy strips with small veins anastamosing within thedark layer which separated the pale nodular layers thatappeared to consist primarily of mineral vein materials

The presence of fresh mud in some of these images suggestedto me that these might be contemporary growths and not justsnapshots of frozen events from eons ago Several images inthis book illustrate my speculation that current microbialinteractions on Mars might rationally explain many of theobservations that seem to be in conflict with the currentparadigm that there was and is no life on Mars

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Chapter Three

THE STROMATOLITE FAMILY OF ROCKS

31 General morphological characteristics

The stromatolite family of rocks generally display the followingmorphological characteristics

1) Presence of lithified remnants of the microbial mats thatwere involved in the formation of the rock The remnants maybe in the form of thin or thick mats or diffused crusts or maysometimes not be evident because of mixture with the chemicalconstituents of the rock which they precipitated It is possiblethat putative Martian mats might be even thinner than Earthrsquosand may therefore not be visible at MSL resolutions

2) The rocks often have a layered appearance with several finelayers representative of periods of activity of the mats whichmight be as short as a few days The layers are thereforeusually much finer than typical geological layers

3) The shapes of stromatolites may vary greatly between suchtypes as the laminar type the domal type the bumpy type whichconsists of small objects cemented together by slime from themicrobial mats spheroids crusty typesveined types indentedtypes pinnacles weathered types mixed or combo types andthrombolites a type that exhibits little interior differentiation

The following sections presents images of common types ofMicrobialites and compares them with images of MSLRs fromthe Mars Rovers

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

32 Range of Earth types

The following is a number of images showing selectedstromatolites or thrombolites in various localities on Earthviewed at 2 different levels of observation

1) macro groupings of stromatolites identifiable as specifictypes

2) individual stromatolites displaying characteristic diagnosticfeatures

The images were all sourced from Internet sites that areacknowledged and indicated in Annex II

Fig 321 P 1010469-Diffused mats Evolutionary Research Stromatolite site

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 322 P1010298- thin mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 323 P1010456-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 324 Mixed types - Fossil Forum

Fig 325 Pavilion Lake Microbialite Pinnacles

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 326 P1010460-thick crusts Evolutionary Research site

Fig 327 Living bumpy Stromatolites from Shark Bay Australia

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 328 Domal Stromatolites from Eastern Pilbara Australia

Fig 329 Lake Thetis Thrombolites

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fine features of Earthrsquos Stromatolites

Fig 3210 P1010007-Eroded traditional spheroid from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3211 P1010213-thick mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 3212 P1010097-Diffused Mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3213 P1010112-Thin mats from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 3214 P1010117-traditional spheroid forms from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3215 A-115-Weathered veined and crusty from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 3217 WPGR-107A-bumpy type from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 3216 P1010214-Thick crusts and veined from Evolutionary Research Site

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

33 Range of putative MSLRs on Mars

I searched through the MER and MSL archives for images ofrocks which resembled the rocks given in the preceding sectionand found several such rocks in all of the Roversrsquo archivesHowever they was a clear preponderance of classical laminarand domal types followed perhaps by the bumpy stromatolitetypes

Re the bumpy types there were a few images mainly fromSpirit that even though similar morphologically to the earthtypes were probably vesiculated basalts Two images ofvesiculated basalts are shown below in Figs 331 and 332

Tafoni are a type of limestone or granitic rock that is relativelycommon on Earth These rocks were until recently consideredto be merely products of mechanical erosion by water

Fig 331 MSL s522 Vesiculated basalt not a StromatoliteFig 331a Spirit s736 MI details of a vesiculated basalt

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

However microbial input in their formation has been recentlydemonstrated and in fact a process of producing them fordwellings using the microbe bacillus pasteurii is beingdeveloped

Several images of Tafoni from diverse environments on Earthcan be found on the Internet Many of these have strongsimilarities to some images of rocks in the Mars Roversrsquoarchives Below Fig 332a is just one example of a Tafonirock on Earth compared with Fig 332b a rock with similarvisual characteristics from MSL 1090 on Mars Fig 332c isa more typical Earth Tafoni rock compared with rocks fromCuriosity sol 0057 and sol 1003 in Fig 332d 332e

A number of representative images of MSLRs from the archivesof the Mars Rovers are presented on the pages following

Fig 332a Tafoni from Digital YakFig 332b MSL 1090 Tafoni like shapes

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 332c Typical Tafoni with lichens from Wikimedia commons

Fig 332d MSL s57 Tafoni like rockFig 332e MSL s1003 Holey rock resembling tafoni

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 333 Opportunity s259 domal stromatolite Wopmay

Fig 333 b Closeup of Wopmay surface textures typical of several examples ofLiving stromatolites on Earth especially in Shark Bay Australia

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 334a MSL s938 Line of MSLR pinnacles at Garden City Pahrump hills

Fig 334 Opportunity s488 mixed bumpy and layered stromatolites

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 335 MSL s1063 Thin mats

Fig 336 MSL s1047 Domal mixed type

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 337 MSL s122 Eroded domal type or Thrombolite

Fig 338 Spirit s1141 Combo type bumpy and spheroid

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 339 MSL s0744 Thrombolites

Fig 3310 MSL s946 Mixed veined MSLR

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 3311 MSL s1142 layers in MSLR

Fig 3312 MSL s514 Veins intertwined with rock matrix

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 3313 MSL s540 3D anaglyph of Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3314 MSL s308 3D anaglyph of bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 3315 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy stromatolite

Fig 3316 MSL s528 Thrombolite

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 41 Delaminating stromatolite from Brazil

Fig 42 MSL s710 delaminating MSLRs

Chapter Four

COMPARING EARTH AND MARSrsquo MSLRS

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 43 Section of Spheroid form P101286 from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 44 MSL s901 Intact spheroid with pale crust on top

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 45 Living thrombolite at Shark Bay Australia

Fig 46 MSL s0308- Thrombolite look alike

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 48 Opportunity s88 Microbialites at Fram craterFig 49 Opportunity s4180 Microbialite 3D anaglyph

Fig 47 Microbialites from Pavilion Lake Canada

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 410 Domal type at Hamelin Pool Australia

Fig 411 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater Domal types

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 412 P1010080-veined-crusty stromatolite from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 413 MSL s0930 3D anaglyph of veined crusty MSLR

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 414 Mixed spheroid Otago 070792

Fig 415 Spirit s491 mixed spheroid layered

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 416 bumpy stromatolite WPGR-104 from Evolutionary Research site Smalllayers present with a corkscrew appearance

Fig 417 Opportunity s2716 Bumpy MLSRFig 418 MSL s540 3D Bumpy MLSR note corkscrew like layering

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 420 MSL s906 Domal MSLR with similar layering

Fig 419 Classical domal stromatolites from Pilbara

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 421 Spheroid types from iron eating microbes

Fig 422 Opportunity s3064 1M400199078 Newberries

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 423 WPGR-105A-bumpy from Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 424 Spirit s0075 Mixed type

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 425 from P1010213-thick mats Evolutionary Research site

Fig 426 MSL s1031 Veined and thick mats under rock overhang

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 427 from P1010089-crusty mixed stromatolite Evolutionary Research Site

Fig 428 MSL s544 mixed crusty MSLR type

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Chapter Five

THEYrsquoRE ALL OVER MARS

51 Some more images from Curiosity

Below are some images of rocks resembling the Stromatolitefamily of rocks that were posted on the NASAJPLCaltech rawimages websites for MSL images Because of space limitationsI chose only three of the images in my collection that I havenot already used in this ebook for the named rover The imagebelow in Fig 511 is of a John Klien MSLR Fig 512 showsan intruiging image of a rock that appears to be sitting on a bigdebris flow emanating from what looks like a small cave Fig513 is a 3D anaglyph of a MAHLI image of an outgrowth ona rock resembling a microbialite

Fig 511 MSL s186 Domal mixed types

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 512 MSL s0781 Combo type MSLR and debris flows

Fig 513 MSL s0758 3D anaglyph of MSLRs resembling microbialite pinnacle

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

52 Some more images from Opportunity

The next three images were taken from the Opportunity rawimage resources Fig 521 below is of a rock from MERb sol1178 that arguably shows internal layering with somedifferential colouring that might indicate microbial action

Fig 522 shows rocks that mimics a combo crusty laminarStromatolite

Fig 523 shows a collection of rocks that display somecharacteristics of a typical domal stromatolite

The Opportunity archive of images was not as fully subscribedwith examples of possible stromatolites as was the Curiosityarchive

Fig 521 Opportunity s1178 Domal type Colours suggestive of mats

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 522 Opportunity s3067 Mixed bumpy and domed type

Fig 523 Opportunity s1097 Domal type

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

53 Some more images from Spirit

Spirit provided less images that might be examples ofstromatolitic rocks than did Opportunity Below in fig 531is an example of layered types which might be examples ofinduration of debris flows Fig 532 shows a typical domedstromatolite from sol 78 Fig 533 appears to be primarily alayered type from sol 488

There are a number of other examples of rocks from Spiritwhich bear some morphological similarity to Earthrsquosstromatolites Some of them are on my smugmug picture site

Fig 531 Spirit s1146 Layered types and debris flows

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 532 Spirit s0078 domal type

Fig 533 Spirit s488 Mixed bumpy and domal types

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

CHAPTER SIX

Fossils or Living Rocks

It is quite possible indeed even likely that many of the imagesof rocks on Mars that I have presented as Martian StromatoliteLike Rocks (MSLRs) are merely fossils or even just rocks

However It is my contention that some of them or parts of themmight be actually living at this time My rationale for thiscomes from the following considerations

1) Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment in 1976 identified chemicalreactions in soil on Mars that were most likely the result ofmetabolic reactions by living microbes If he was right thensuch microbes must be ubiquitous and must be leaving tell talesigns over much of Marrsquos landscape

2) It has recently been announced that the RSLrsquos on Mars arelikely to be the result of transient flows of brines down craterwalls It is likely that these brines carry microbial life

3) If RSLrsquos are powered by brines it is also likely that thevisually similar ldquoDebris Flowsrdquo captured in many images bythe three Rovers on Mars are also powered by flows of brinesIf so there is some likelihood that the brines also carrymicrobes one type of which might be martian cyanobacteriaanalogues that live in the subsurface and assist in thedevelopment of martian stromatolites and other rocks from thesubsurface rather than from immersion in shallow water as isusually the case on Earth Indeed it may be that the Stromatolitemodel on Mars might be similar to the Lichen stromatolites onEarth which mineralize rocks from a damp environment on thebase of the rocks

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

4) Several of the images of degraded rock surfaces are observedto have a blue - green colour which might indicate the presenceof chlorophyll or of activity by Cyanobacteria analogues

5) Several images of rocks broken by Rover wheels show anldquoeruptionrdquo of soil from the subsurface that looks likecharacteristically friable earth soil and often appears to bedamp Thus closed conditions might exist in the subsurface thatwould support significant bacterial life

6) A large preponderance of rocks that resemble stromatolitesare associated with current debris flows and with ldquoveinsrdquo in amanner that is visually similar to some living Earth stromatolites

7) Exposed undersurfaces of rocks often display veins thatappear to be quite fresh running on their surfaces I think thisis suggestive of contemporary growth

8) In certain areas Veins are a major component of rock typesthat totally mimic the appearance of some living Earthstromatolites Such areas are also rich in clays

9) There is therefore a likelihood that many of the veinsassociated with some stromatolites are currently active andgrowing

10) Several images of the undersurfaces of rocks dislodged byRover action are smeared with fresh mud-like soil that looksfriable and damp This process is probably a current one relatedto the build up of the contiguous mudstone layers

11) Several images especially from Curiosity suggest that amumber of stromatolitic features are currently being producedfrom soil lying below overhangs of eroding layered rock

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

12) A number of images taken in the shadows below some rockoverhangs also show fragile structures arising from the soiland seemingly currently active and not merely fossilizedstructures

13) A number of pale coverings have been imaged on rocks(mainly by Curiosity) that were most likely laid down after therock was formed Some of these coatings have textures thatappear identical to those of some living rocks on Earth

14) Some MSLRs imaged by the Rovers show rinds orcoverings that resemble the crusts on living stromatolites atPilbara in Australia

15) The undersurface of some rocks show structuresreminiscent of hollow chambers which might indicate formersubsurface activity These overturned rocks are oftenassociated with debris flows

16) Several images suggest that a process is underway on thesides of slopes that results in the current development of thinlayers of rock These layers appear to be developing fromongoing accumulation of debris flows emanating from underrocks higher up the slopes There might be microbial facilitationof this process modelled on tafoni type microbe interactions

17) The ubiquitous presence of heavily delaminated layersespecially at Gale crater suggests that something more thanstraightforward wind erosion is responsible Much of thisdelamination might be due to the activities of rock eatinglithotrophic microbes

18) A number of images show some surfaces of MSLRssmeared with what appears to be fresh mud This is almost

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

unexplainable under the conditions that we consider obtain onpresent day Mars It is explainable however if one considersthat mud might be generated in the debris flows in thesubsurface and that this muddy medium carries the microbeswhich facilitate the conditions and reactions that produce themineral layers Perhaps the veins that can be seenanastomozing through most of the images are involved in thisprocess also The muds then become one of the most importantaspects of the ecosystem producing and maintaining the MSLRs

19) Fresh broken rocks from Fresh Craters The roversappear to have a policy of studious avoidance of fresh cratersand have generally only provided cursory long distance imagesof the rocks at their edges when a thorough examination of therocks near or in those craters would seem to have been a bettermethod to produce the data on habitability that is the stated goalof the mission Despite this however at least 2 looks at freshcraters have been made that have produced images whichsuggest that some MSLRrsquos from the subsurface in Meridianiplanum and Gale crater might be still alive

20) Rotten rocks Similarly few instances of clumps of smallpebbles that appear to have disintegrated in situ have beenstudied by the Rovers and such imaging is usually from adistance The Rovers appear to avoid them on most occasionsand move on to other sites I wonder however if thoroughexamination of such occurrences might have led to thedevelopment of chemical and image data that might suggestthat these phenomena are of contemporary origin where thebinding agents for the rocks might have been metabolized bycertain putative chemolithotrophs and thereby caused thedeterioration and breaking up of such rocks

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

21) I presented an object from around the soil near to the edgeof the youthful Fram crater as possible evidence ofmulticellular life in my first book ldquoIn search of life on MarsrdquoI now think that it is probably a microbialite and possibly notjust a fossil one but perhaps a living rock unearthed byOpportunityrsquos wheels on sol 88 as indicated by the oozing lightcoloured material visible around the crushed portions at the topright side of the image The wheel marks are clearly shown inimages taken around this time and support such a scenario

The closeup images of Wopmay taken around sol 259 showmany textural similarities including colour to the sol 88 MSLRand also to images of contemporary stromatolites at HamelinPool Australia Could it be that Wopmay might be a part ofan older version of the sol 88 MSLR and that they may bothbe very distantly related to the Hamelin Pool stromatolitesThe sol 88 MSLR is shown in Fig 48 The Wopmay close upis in fig 333a and the Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Fig 410Look very closely at the sol 88 image in Fig 48 for the featuresmentioned above

I am speculating that there might be a range of microbescurrently living at or near the surface of Mars They exist in anumber of ecosystems The main ecosystem is in a normallyclosed environment in the subsoil Microbes assist inmaintaining this ecosystem as a damp briny one characterizedby the very fine and dark ldquodebris flowsrdquo in three main ways1) by contributing to the maintenance of a relativelyimpermeable crust that if breached allows the debris flows toexude and flow out to the surface 2) by facilitating theprecipitation of minerals at the rock subsoil interface 3) byregulating Carbon Dioxide Oxygen ratios in that

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

environment which if the crust is breached leads to the oftenseen rapid loss of pressure and ldquoeruptionrdquo of the debris flows

Another ecosystem may be an aerial one between themineralized laminae of the MSLRs Microbes there may livein interstices between and within the rock laminae and mightbe the main agents involved in the break down of laminarbinding agents there

The main arguments against the above ldquohand wavingrdquo may bethat it is currently accepted that there is not enough water toservice such a system and that the environmental conditionson Mars are totally inimical to the proliferation of life as weknow it

I am however hypothesizing that the putative Life is not totallydependant on external Martian atmospheric conditions butrather on a highly modified biosphere in the niches postulatedabove MSL scientists have found different Redox states forsome chemicals eg sulphates and sulphides coexisting in someGale rocks This could provide the potentials for energizingmetabolic reactions by certain microbes Fixed Nitrogen hasalso been demonstrated Sunlight above ground may alsoprovide energy for some microbes but there just might beenough fuel available for the metabolism of the putative subsoilbiota

This series started with my accepting that Gil Levin found lifeon Mars in 1976 If he did the presence of MSLRs isexplainable If he didnrsquot the images of MSLRs on thefollowing pages are an extreme but widespread anomalysignifying a waste of structure unconnected with past or presentfunctionality

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites

Fig 61 MSL s627 laminae and spectacular debris flows after drilling

By far the majority of the MSLRs in images from the MER andMSL rovers appear to be associated with dark debris flowsdirectly or appear to be sitting on top of a dark matrixunderneath which is the debris flows

This series of images shows a few examples of this observationThe first image show a situation where Curiosity lsquos drilling oftwo holes in one of the putative MLSR appears to haveprecipitated a spreading debris flow that moved far from therock that was drilled

Figs 61 62 62b and 63 show other examples where theMSLRs are all closely associated with debris flows

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Debris Flows near putative stromatolites II

Fig 62 MSL s938 structures made up of veins and mudstone in debris flowsFig 62 b MSL s919 debris flows from around MSLRs

Fig 63 MSL s1031 spectacular debris flows veins and laminated MSLRs

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Microbial Mats between or within layers or clumps ofrock

Fig 64 Spirit s749

One essential feature of the Stromatolite family of rocks is thatthey are laid down around pieces or layers of microbial matsusually of the cyanobacteria family The presence of microbialmats in MSLRs is generally not as clearcut as can be ascertainedin Earthrsquos stromatolites and often needs to be inferred fromvarious aspects of the Rover images

Fig 64 below is an example of differential laminar colouringof a number of MSLRs that suggests to me that there was alaminar presence of microbial mats which might be still active

Figs 65 66 and 67 show peeks by the MAHLI imager in theshadows between laminae on MSL sols 1063 and 0998

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 65 below is a 3D anaglyph of the areas between thelaminae of an eroding MSLR Of note is the dark uniform finedust of the Debris flows that is evident between several of thelaminar sheets and also that the laminae appear to consist of alight coloured material wedged between layers of loose granularappearing material Could this material be remnants of a longexpired microbial mat Or could it be still active

Fig 66 is of an MSL sol 1063 situation that shows a similardisposition of the essential components of the laminar systemFig 67 shows (through the small dislodged portions of adamaged layer) that the lamina edge is composed largely of theloose grey material mentioned above The material is wellpacked in one of the dislodged portions while it is loose in theintact weathering rock

Fig 65 MSL s842 MAHLI imaging of between the laminae of eroding layers 3D

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Microbial Mats between or within layers of rock II

Fig 66 MSL s1063 fine structure of layers 1

Fig 67 MSL s0998 Fine structure of layers 2

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Mud on surface of MSLRs

Fig 68 MSL s935 Fresh mud on surface of veined MSLR

Fig 69 MSL s932 fresh mud layer on veined mudstone type Garden city

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Blue green colours on delaminated layers of MSLRs

Are these indicative of microbial activity

Fig 610 MSL s903 green geometrically aligned ldquodustrdquo on laminae 3D anaglyph

Fig 611 MSL s1047 green laminae effects of current microbes

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Soil exuding from subsurface ruptured by Rover wheels

Fig 613 MSL s1108 3D anaglyph of soil coating exposed rocks

Fig 612 MSL s1039 damp appearance and mud stuck on rock surfaces

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 614 S160 MSLunderside of damaged rock A= context image B= 3D x-eyed image C= Anaglyph

Veins traversing upturned rocks whose exposed surfacewas in subsurface soil

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Objects which appear to have grown from soil under rockoverhangs

Fig 615 MSL s840 Objects apparently growing out of the dark soil on the floor of anoverhang with veins connecting them

Fig 616 MSL s840 3D anaglyph showing luminescent veins proliferating inprotected soil surface

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Pale coatings on exposed surfaces of rocks

Fig 617 MSL s1100 showing coating on outcropFig 618 MSL s1049 3D anaglyph of induration from former Debris Flows

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Scabs or crusts on rocks resembling stromatolites

Fig 619 MSL s1151 thick scabs on outcrop MSRLFig 620Oppy s2145 Fresh blue-green rind on rock surface at Conception crater

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Repeating features on undersides of overturned rocks

Fig 621 MSL s141 3D anaglyph showing highly structured supports under rock

Fig 622 MSL s796 similar chambers on overturned rock

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows

A Fig 623 MSL s584 solidified debris flow constituentsB Fig 624 MSL s0631 foreground accumulation of earlier debris flows

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Formation of new layers possibly associated with DebrisFlows and Veins II

Fig 625 MSL s1059 3D anaglyph of young pale lamina with patterned surfaceFig 626 MSL s1065 3D of later stage in induration of laminae

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Formation of new layers associated with Debris Flowsand Veins III

Fig 628 MSL s1151 Panorama of concentric close layering

Fig 627 MSL s1092 3D anaglyph of another indurated debris flow

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Formation of layers associated with Debris Flows andVeins IV

Fig 629 MSL s1155 Early phase in direct induration process Note morphology andrelativity of placement of former flows and new flows

Fig 630 MSL s1153 MSLR with recent layers and flows downslope

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Damaged MSLRrsquos at edges of Fresh Craters

During the campaign of the three Rovers in which they passednear to several small Fresh craters they stopped to makedetailed investigations of just a few Those examined includedone at Fram crater around Opportunity sol 88 and an unnamedcrater around Opportunity sol 1160 The image below (Fig631) which Irsquove presented earlier to illustrate a different pointis of an object at the edge of Fram crater which Opportunityrsquoswheels dislodged and partially damaged

Look carefully at the image It shows an MSLR resembling amicrobialite with the top right edges apparently squashed bythe rover wheels and apparently exuding what might be a liquidflow The inside of the object was a fresh light orange colourcontrasting with the mauve coloring of the rind

Fig 631 MSL sol 88 MSLR resembling microbialite unearthed and damaged byRover whhels

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 632 MSL sol 1160 Freshly deposited rocks at edge of Fresh crater

The sol 1160 image (Fig 632) is of a section of rocks at theedge of a small very fresh crater It shows several brokenMSLRs on the edge of that crater Their variously colouredpale interiors can be clearly seen as well as their reddish violetrinds The interiors are comparable in colouration and textureto the broken sections of the Fig 631 image It is difficult tounderstand why the assemblage of rocks in Fig 632 did notappear to have merited further in depth examination

The RAD images were not available to the general publicaround the time they were taken on April 29th 2007 so most ofthe amateur Mars Rover followers would not have seen therange of colours they exhibited and hence the possibilities thatthey might have been a bit more complex than just rocks

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

The rotten rock syndrome was evident from the early days ofthe MER campaign when Opportunity and Spirit took Navcamimages usually from a distance of piles of loose rocks thatseemed to be the result of the breakdown of the cementing agentthat had held the pieces of small sedimentary pebbles togetherAs far as I am aware the Rovers always bypassed suchsituations without attempting to investigate further

Fig 633 is an example of the syndrome Could it be that suchoccurrences might have been due to a microbially inducedbreakdown of the cementing agents thereby causing theslumping of the components of the rocks into loose piles

The images presented on the preceding pages are intended tosupport my contention that there is a case for considering thepossibility that some of the MSLRs on Mars may be still alive

Rotten Rocks

Fig 633 MSL s 368 Rotten rocks

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

I think the strongest indication of current life processes is inthe process of induration of debris flows that Irsquove highlightedThat process is now being mimicked commercially on Earth inthe production of Tafoni structures utilizing Bacillus pasteurito produce hard rocks from sand Maybe a B Pasteuri analogueis doing the same thing in certain niches on Mars

Many of us who avidly follow the release of images from theMarsrsquo rovers get the impression of a dynamic living surfacethere not a sterile one in which there was never any lifeinvolved nor one in which putative past life was totallyobliterated long ago The strong impression is rather that of acurrent ongoing expression of Life on a Planet in recovery

There are two special images which I think captured the essenceof the life that I think is still existing in Gale crater and atMeridiani Those images were captured on MSL sol 132 byCuriosity and on MERb sol 1160 by Opportunity

The Fig 634 image shows a fresh craterrsquos edge populated byrocks several of which have been split and now show veryfresh looking insides based on their pale dustless colours ascompared with the darker rinds whose conformation is notconsistent with having originated from fracture fills

The Fig 635 image of the MSLR from Fram crater shows aveined boxwork stromatolite pattern and the familiar smalluniform black spheroids associated with flows in MSLRs Inaddition there are a number of small uniform dark shapes theregularity and appearance of which suggest that they might berelated to some aspect of life The overall morphology of theobject is similar in several respects to a combo Earthstromatolite type

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 634 Opportunity s1160 Fresh crater showing Broken MSLRs

Fig 635 Curiosity sol 132 3D anaglyph of a degraded stromatolite from under arock overhang showing several interesting features Look at it at high magnification

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSIONS

This book is the last in my trilogy of books which postulatethat Life exists on Mars right now They all start from anacceptance that Gil Levinrsquos LR experiment on two widelyseparated Viking Landers in 1976 demonstrated that Life existsjust below the surface of Mars in all the samples tested and istherefore likely to be ubiquitous near its surface

ldquoIn search of life on Marsrdquo demonstrated that it was likely thatsuch life existed by a close examination of signs in imagesselected from the archives of the Opportunity and Spirit Roversthat were suggestive of lifersquos involvement

The second book ldquoOn debris flows and mineral veinsrdquo exploredthe possibility that life on the surface of Mars is carried on thoseubiquitous features of the surface of that planet

This current book has tried to show that there is a strongpossibility that the surface of Mars is replete with rocks thatmay be related to the Microbialites of Earth I think it hassucceeded in that regard But it goes even further and suggeststhat some of the MSLRs on Mars may actually be alive fromthe congruence of a number of facts related to the images

I presented a number of images from the three Rovers SpiritOpportunity and Curiosity and used them to show that unlikethe usual interpretation of Marsrsquo surface as being a largelymonochromatic lifeless construct it was instead a technicolordynamic one possessing what appears to be a friable soil asobserved when its protective crust is breached and that thesurface is dominated by the widespread presence of rocks that

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

mimic the morphological appearance of Earthrsquos MicrobialitesThe book outlines how the apparent contradiction between ourcurrent mainstream understanding of the Martian surface andthe images sent down by the rovers might be reconciled oncean intangible catalyst of widespread and diverse microbial lifeand significant presence of water in debris flows is built intoour models of contemporary Mars

I am speculating that certain niches on Mars are protectiveecosystems that conserves water in brines and that also allowsmicrobes to thrive and thus facilitates the development of theMSLRrsquos that can be seen in each geographical area that theMarsrsquo rovers have visited so far

The images used in this book are a very important aspect of thepresentation I considered that in most cases the raw imagesof the surface provided in the NASAJPLCaltech raw imagearchives did not do adequate justice to what was demonstrablythere on the surface because of their relative lack of contrast

Most of the images that I used were therefore enhanced in theimage editor Gimp to bring out the natural colours anddefinition of the objects being examined Indeed it surprisedme that in some of the images notably the close up Wopmayimages and some domal stromatolite analogues from Spiritthat the Gimp processing actually produced characteristic violetcolours that were almost identical to those of images of livingstromatolite surfaces from Shark bay and Pilbara Australia

There are many ramifications flowing from the position I haveposited here One major resultant would be how should theauthorities treat with the possibilities of cross contamination ofEarth and Mars microbes if microbially formed structures are

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

as widely spread on Mars as the images suggest and if there istherefore a likelihood that much of the near subsurface may bepopulated by living microbes A simple policy of ldquocut andrunrdquo when a Rover breaches the soil and finds some stones thatappear to be microbialites or disturbs damp friable soil wouldno longer be viable

Due consideration should therefore be given to improving theGlobal policies that would allow research on Mars to continuegoverned by a rigorous sample return policy and rules ofengagement that would involve intermediate sites of returnoutside Earth proper perhaps on the Moon or on satellitestations orbiting Earth Such stringent policies would beimperative for planetary protection in which precisely tailoredrisk amelioration strategies are developed for mitigation of allforeseeable risks involved

I also think that consideration of the strong possibility that Earthand Mars might share living rocks as well as a plethora ofmicrobes should lead us to research and reflect on what reallyhappened on Mars in the past and what will probably happenin the future to our planet Is the current Mars our past or ourfuture

Is the situation re Life on Mars an early version of what hashappened on Earth or did that situation arise from somethingthat can happen to us in the future What really caused the lossof Marsrsquo atmosphere and possibly multicellular life Was thecause something that Man can avert or was it somethingabsolutely beyond our control Is there any validity in theElectric Earth hypotheses Is Marsrsquo current state a harbingerof ours in the near or distant future

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Whatever the likely questions the continuation of in depthresearch on Mars would quadruple in importance if microbiallife were found there and if that life was found to be similar insome respects to ours Such research would possibly need tofollow now undreamed of paths to answer other questions thatare now impossible to formulate

My ideas here should be taken as being only workinghypotheses based on a set of limited observations whichsuggests that there is a likelihood that extant microbial lifeexists widely on Mars The recent confirmation that significantvolumes of brines currently flow down crater slopes as RSLrsquosstarting from below rocks near the tops of such slopesstrengthens those observations

Due consideration of these ideas might lead to significantbreakthroughs in a number of areas of astrobiology based noton reliance on the tenets of the current paradigm but onrecognizing its possible shortfalls and the possibilities forparadigm change flowing from recent findings in Mars science

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Annex 1

ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONSNASA-JPL NASA -Jet Propulsion Laboratory - US Government

MER Mars Exploration Rovers MerA (Spirit) and MerB (Opportunity)

MSL Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

MAHLI Mars Hand lens imager on Curiosity

MI Microscopic Imager on MERS rovers

Meridiani planum Location on Mars in which MerB (Opportunity) landed

Gale Crater Location on Mars in which Curiosity landed

Gusev Location on Mars in which MerA (Spirit) landed

Blueberries Small grey-blue spheres dominating the landscape at Meridiani

RSL Recurrent (formerly called Transient) Slope Lineae Dark lines on crater slopes

LR The Gil Levin 1976 Viking Labelled Release experiment

MSLRs Martian Stromatolite Like Rocks

Microchannels Small channels in cracks between rocks often mimicking fluid flows

Microbialite A sedimentary body formed on the bed of a body of water from the remains ofbenthic communities of algae and cyanobacteria It is a general term that includesStromatolites and Thrombolites

Stromatolite A calcareous mound built up of layers or crusts of lime-secreting cyanobacteriaand trapped sediment found in Precambrian rocks as the earliest known fossils and still beingformed in lagoons in Australia and other parts of the World

Thrombolites Structures built by cyanobacteria in calcareous sublittoral facies The Bacteriadeposit thin layers of silt and calcium that slowly grow into rounded rocks The rocks have aclotted microtexture and no internal laminae

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

ANNEX 2 SOURCE URLs FOR FIGURESThe majority of the images here are sourced from the NASAJPLCaltech archives ofimages from the MER and MSL missions The sol numbers are indicated in the Figdescription and the specific source image may be tracked by searching for the solnumber in the Midnight Planet website [ httpwwwmidnightplanetscom ]

Several images of the Stromatolite family of rocks on Earth are sourced from thediagnostic website of the NASA supported project identified below The codenumbers for the individual images are indicated in my descriptions of each such figurein the website of the EVOLUTIONARY RESEARCH Stromatolite IdentificationSite [ httpwwwevolutionaryresearchorgstromatoliteshtm ]

A few other images were sourced from the virtual Fossil museum website below

wwwfossilmuseumnetFossil_GalleriesStromatolitesAmericahtm

All other images of the stromatolite family of rocks on Earth were sourced from avariety of websites which are identified in the text for the requisite Figure

The URLs of the sources of the images for specific figures are indicated belowFig 324 httpwwwthefossilforumcomuploadsmonthly_05_2015post-18520-0-90984000-1432835264jpg

Fig 325 httpwwwlakescientistcomwp-contentuploads201108011jpg

Fig 327 httpsuwaterloocapeter-russell-rock-gardenrock-gardenrock-groupsproterozoic-rocksstromatolite-marble

Fig 328 httpjfmoyenfreefrIMGjpgEPIL-stromatojpg

Fig 329httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons002Lake_Thetis-Stromatolites-LaRuthjpg

Fig 331bhttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

Fig 333bhttpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonscccLichen_on_Tafoni_01jpg

Fig 41 http3bpblogspotcom-Hi2Z1KTbvcwUEYWlfiuIRIAAAAAAAAAEk4zNF1nDtynks1600SAM_1375JPGFig 45 httpwwwazcomnatourismusenglish-articlesstromatolites156504php

Fig 47 httpsgraceyeonjinleefileswordpresscom201406img_2397jpg

Fig 410httpwwwryanphotographiccomimagesJPEGSStromatolites20Hamelin20Pool204jpg

Fig 414httpwwwotagoacnzgeologyotago070792jpg

Fig 419httpgswadatadmpwagovaugswadatakmlPilbaradiscoverytrailsimages4-8bjpg

Fig 421 httpwwwfossilmallcomStonerelicstromatoliteStro17ds1601djpg

ANNEX 3 INTERNET REFERENCESGENERALMarsroverblog forum websitehttpwwwmarsroverblogcommars-forumforumhtml

Lyall Winston Smallrsquos (LWS) smugmug photositehttplwssmugmugcom

In search of life on Mars book - Lyall Winston Smallhttpswwwscribdcomdoc170761631In-search-of-life-on-Mars

On Debris Flows book - Lyall Winston Small

httpswwwscribdcomdoc284247475On-Debris-Flows-eBook

The living rocks of Marshttpswwwscribdcomdoc289291021The-Living-Rocks-of-Mars

Harry Rabbrsquos Life on Mars Visual web sitehttpwwwsaunalahtifi~harrrabenglishmars-englishhtml

Hortonheardawhorsquos Flickr photositehttpwwwflickrcomphotoshortonheardawho

MSL raw images websitehttpmarsjplnasagovmslmultimediaraw

The Midnight Planet Websitehttpwwwmidnightplanetscom

Research on Marsndash Papers by Gilbert V Levin PhDhttpgillevincommarshtm

Ramifications of a sterile Mars- Gilbert Levin 2011httpgillevincomMarsSPIE_Paper_2011_as_Submittedpdf

MICROBIAL MATS MICROBIALITES AND STROMATOLITESStromatolites Wikipedia descriptionhttpsenwikipediaorgwikiStromatolite

Microbial mats and modern stromatolites in Shark Bay Western Australia GolubicS(Boston University MA United States) NASA Technical Reports Server NTRShttpntrsnasagovsearchjspR=19860033289

Opportunity Roverrsquos image analysis Microbialites on Mars Giorgio BianciardiVincenzo Rizzo Nicola Cantasano Intrsquol J of Aeronautical amp Space Sci 15(4) 419ndash433 (2014)httpijassorgOn_lineadminfiles1(419~433)14-047pdf

Wrinkle structures on rocks with microbial coveringshttpwwwindianaedu~sepm04PDFPorada-Chapter6apdf

Possible fatty acid detected on Mars by Paul Rincon Science editor BBC Newswebsite The Woodlands Texashttpwwwbbccomnewsscience-environment-31988540

Life on Mars by Harry Rabb Kirkkonummi Finland Last updated 16th ofSeptember 2015httpwwwsaunalahtifi~harrrabenglishLifeOnMars-Rabb2014pdf

The pilbara rocks built by microbes - Biology onlinehttpwwwbiology-onlineorgarticlesancient_rocks_built_microbeshtml

Microbialites in antarcticahttpwwwnhmacuknatureplusblogsAntarcticcyanobacteriatagsmicrobial_matfromGateway=true

Science 343 (2014) A Habitable Fluvio-Lacustrine Environment at YellowknifeBay Gale Crater Mars JP Grotzinger et alhttplunarearthnorthwesterneducourses438grotzinger2014pdf

Calcite vein networks in Jessicarsquos nature bloghttpsnatureinfocusfileswordpresscom201310dscf2603caswellrockpatternstextures14jpgw=584amph=441httpsnatureinfocuswordpresscomcategoryplacesgower-peninsulacaswell-bay

343 billion-year-old stromatolite reef from the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia Ecosystem-scale insights to early life on Earth Abigail C Allwood ab Malcolm R Walter a Ian W Burchab Balz S Kamber c

httpspacewardboundnasagovaustralia2011resourcesallwood20etal20200720pilbara20stromatolitespdf

groundwater-fed iron-rich microbial mats in a freshwater creek growth cycles andfossilization potential of microbial features J Schieberhttpwwwlpiusraedumeetingslpsc2004pdf1369pdf

eukaryote-dominated biofilms in extreme environments overlooked sources ofinformation in the geologic record sandra s brake and stephen t hasiotishttppalaioskuedu233brakepdf

Islands of Life - Part One by Henry Bortman for Astrobiology MagazinehttpwwwmarsdailycomreportsIslands_of_Life_Part_One_999html

espeacuterance extreme aqueous alteration in fracture fills and coatings at matijevic hillmars b c clark rgellert re arvidson sw squyres et alhttpwwwhouusraedumeetingslpsc2014pdf1419pdf

Leak in Curiositys Wet Chemistry Test Finds Organics Discoverycom MAR 172015 0600 by Irene Klotzhttpnewsdiscoverycomspaceleak-in-curiositys-wet-chemistry-test-finds-mars-organics-150317htm

Stromatolites - Geological park Brazilhttpwwwcprmgovbrgeoecoturismogeoparquesmorrodochapeuimgfigura52jpghttpwwwcprmgovbrgeoecoturismogeoparquesmorrodochapeuimgfigura86jpg

Uluru - ayers rock is geobiologyhttpmedia-1webbritannicacomeb-media5199551-004-D3F0ECB2jpg

The formation of antitaxial calcite veins with well-developed fibres OppamindaCreek South Australia Paul D Bons Michael Montenari Journal of StructuralGeology 27 (2005) 231ndash248httpquestarcnasagovprojectsspacewardboundaustralia2009docsBons_Montenaripdf

Endolithic cyanobacteria in soil gypsum Occurrences in Atacama (Chile) Mojave(United States) and Al-Jafr Basin (Jordan) Deserts Authors Hailiang Dong JasonA Rech Hongchen Jiang Henry Sun Brenda J Buckhttponlinelibrarywileycomdoi1010292006JG000385full

Formation of Sustainable Infrastructure Using Microbial Methods and Humanizationof Man-made Environment Romuald TarczewskihttpwwwsciencedirectcomsciencearticlepiiS2351978915009920

Sandstone-making microbes tafoni - and an extraordinary design ideahttpthroughthesandglasstypepadcomthrough_the_sandglass200904sandstonemaking-microbes-tafoni-and-an-extraordinary-design-ideahtml

Tafoni Architecture by Naturehttpdigitalyakstudioblogspotcom201108tafoni-architecture-by-naturehtml

RSLs SLOPE STREAKS AND WATERSpectral evidence for liquid water on Mars 42nd LPSC (2011) NO Renna et alhttpwwwlpiusraedumeetingslpsc2011pdf1537pdf

ScienceDaily (Sep 9 2010) mdash Liquid water has interacted with the Martian surfacethroughout Mars history measurements by NASAs Phoenix Mars Lander suggesthttpwwwsciencedailycomreleases201009100909141535htm

mapping the water content of the martian surface using mars express omega r emilliken lpsc 2005httpwwwlpiusraedumeetingslpsc2005pdf1370pdf

Nature and origin of RSL spectroscopy and detectability of liquid brines in the near-infrared M Masseacute1 P Beck et alhttpwwwlpiusraedumeetingslpsc2012pdf1856pdf

A potential habitable zone within the subsurface at the equatorial region on Mars --Based on mission observation lab experiment and terrestrial analog site study AlianWang (Washington University in St Louis)httpseseasueducontentspring-2011-colloquium-abstracts-alian-wanghttpwwwlpiusraedumeetingsabscicon2010pdf5400pdf

Chlorine and hydrogen contents from the first 90 sols of msl dan active measurements CHardgrove j Moersch d Drake et al 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2013)

httpwwwlpiusraedumeetingslpsc2013pdf1752pdf

Spectral evidence for hydrated salts in recurring slope lineae on Mars L Ojha et alhttpwwwnaturecomngeojournalvaopncurrentfullngeo2546html

Spectral Evidence for Hydrated Salts in Seasonal Brine Flows on Mars Ojha L et alhttpmeetingorganizercopernicusorgEPSC2015EPSC2015-838-1pdf

Bacterial Life and Dinitrogen Fixation at a Gypsum Rock Gudrun Boison AlexanderMergel Helena Jolkver and Hermann Bothehttpaemasmorgcontent70127070full

What Lurks in the martian Rocks and Soil Investigations of Sulfates Phosphates andPerchlorates Gypsum in modern Kamchatka volcanic hot springs and the LowerCambrian black shale Applied to the microbial-mediated precipitation of sulfates onMarsdaggerk Min Tang1 Anouk Ehreiser12 and Yi-Liang Li 1 American MineralogistVolume 99 pages 2126ndash2137 2014httpammingeoscienceworldorgcontent99102126fullpdf+html

Scientists find fixed nitrogen in Martian sediments Javier Martiacuten-Torres Professor ofAtmospheric Science at Lulearing University of TechnologyhttpwwwltuseresearchsubjectsAtmosfarsvetenskapNyheter-och-aktuelltKvavefynd-mojliggor-liv-pa-Mars-1128362l=en

Scientific Britain An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASArsquos Curiosity rovershows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes

httpscientificbritaincompost45220202539an-analysis-of-a-rock-sample-collected-by-nasas