Scientific expedition to Iceland - May2023
Wonderful scientific #expedition with La Venta Esplorazioni Geografiche and National Geographic in #Iceland to study #lavatubes formed after the eruption of the #Fagradalsfjall #Volcano (occurred in 2021). Newly formed lava caves are perfect places to study pioneering #microbial #colonization 🧫and #earlylife of #pristine environments. First #microscope analyses 🔬performed at the basecamp tent, showed the presence of microbial #life in a volcanic cave that six months ago was at 400C🤩 Looking forward to carrying out #DNAextraction 🧬 and #sequencing (at the MEMlab at Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna) for detailed analyses of microorganisms living in these #extremeenvironments With Francesco Sauro, Icelandic Meteorological and Volcanological Center, Icelandic Institute of Natural History, the University of Iceland
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The volcanic crater in front of us
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Solidified lava field on which we were walking to reach the lava caves
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Setting up the experiments at the base camp
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View of the base camp from the solidified lava field
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Martina is picking up samples of possible first microbial life in a newly formed lava tube
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La Venta exploration team is coming out from one of the newly formed lava tube using special equipments for very high temperature environments