{rfName}
In

Indexed in

License and use

Citations

44

Altmetrics

Grant support

The reported research is a contribution from the Project "MarsFirstWater", funded by the European Research Council, ERC Consolidator Grant No. 818602 to AGF and by the Human Frontiers Science Program grant no RGY0066/2018 to AAB. This work was also supported by the grant PGC2018-094076-B-I00 to JW and CA from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain.

Analysis of institutional authors

Fernandez-Martinez, Miguel AngelAuthorSanchez-Garcia, LauraAuthor

Share

Publications
>
Article

Inhabited subsurface wet smectites in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert as an analog for the search for life on Mars

Publicated to:Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 19183- - 2020-12-01 10(1), DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-76302-z

Authors: Azua-Bustos, Armando; Fairen, Alberto G.; Gonzalez Silva, Carlos; Carrizo, Daniel; Fernandez-Martinez, Miguel Angel; Arenas-Fajardo, Cristian; Fernandez-Sampedro, Maite; Gil-Lozano, Carolina; Sanchez-Garcia, Laura; Ascaso, Carmen; Wierzchos, Jacek; Rampe, Elizabeth B.;

Affiliations

Atacama Res, Santiago, Chile - Author
Cornell Univ, Dept Astron, Ithaca, NY 14853 USA - Author
Ctr Astrobiol CSIC INTA, Madrid 28850, Spain - Author
McGill Univ, Dept Nat Resource Sci, Montreal, PQ, Canada - Author
Museo Nacl Ciencias Nat CSIC, Madrid 28006, Spain - Author
NASA, Astromat Res & Explorat Sci Div, Johnson Space Ctr, Houston, TX USA - Author
Univ Autonoma Chile, Fac Ciencias Salud, Inst Ciencias Biomed, Santiago, Chile - Author
Univ Nantes, Lab Planetol & Geodynam, F-44322 Nantes, France - Author
Univ Tarapaca, Fac Ciencias, Arica, Chile - Author
See more

Abstract

The modern Martian surface is unlikely to be habitable due to its extreme aridity among other environmental factors. This is the reason why the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert has been studied as an analog for the habitability of Mars for more than 50 years. Here we report a layer enriched in smectites located just 30 cm below the surface of the hyperarid core of the Atacama. We discovered the clay-rich layer to be wet (a phenomenon never observed before in this region), keeping a high and constant relative humidity of 78% (a(w) 0.780), and completely isolated from the changing and extremely dry subaerial conditions characteristic of the Atacama. The smectite-rich layer is inhabited by at least 30 halophilic species of metabolically active bacteria and archaea, unveiling a previously unreported habitat for microbial life under the surface of the driest place on Earth. The discovery of a diverse microbial community in smectite-rich subsurface layers in the hyperarid core of the Atacama, and the collection of biosignatures we have identified within the clays, suggest that similar shallow clay deposits on Mars may contain biosignatures easily reachable by current rovers and landers.

Keywords

Bacterial communitiesCarbon isotopesDepositsGale craterHalite rocksJezero craterLipid biomarkersMicrobial colonizationOrganic-matterSoils

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Scientific Reports due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2020, it was in position 17/73, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Multidisciplinary Sciences.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations from Scopus Elsevier, it yields a value for the Field-Weighted Citation Impact from the Scopus agency: 1.12, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 7.79 (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-29, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 18
  • Scopus: 26

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-29:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 65.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 65 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 242.39.
  • The number of mentions on the social network Facebook: 1 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 25 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 27 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Canada; Chile; France; United States of America.