Qualla: Laguna Negra, Catamarca

Laguna Negra, Catamarca: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mlewski EC, Pisapia C, Gomez F, Lecourt L, Soto Rueda E, Benzerara K, Ménez B, Borensztajn S, Jamme F, Réfrégiers M and Gérard E, CC BY-SA 4.0. Scientists searching for clues about life on Mars do not always look up. Sometimes they look at a shallow, wind-scoured lake in the Argentine Andes. Laguna Negra sits at 4,131 meters elevation on the Puna plateau in Catamarca Province, near the San Francisco Pass between Chile and Argentina. Less than two meters deep and covering just 8.6 square kilometers, it would be easy to overlook. But along its southeastern shore, in water barely ten centimeters deep, grow structures that connect the present to the deep past: living stromatolites and microbialites whose layered, multicolored forms resemble fossils from the Precambrian era, when life on Earth was measured not in species but in microbial mats.

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Image: Mlewski EC, Pisapia C, Gomez F, Lecourt L, Soto Rueda E, Benzerara K, Ménez B, Borensztajn S, Jamme F, Réfrégiers M and Gérard E | CC BY-SA 4.0

Laguna Negra, Catamarca: Three Lakes at the End of the World

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mlewski EC, Pisapia C, Gomez F, Lecourt L, Soto Rueda E, Benzerara K, Ménez B, Borensztajn S, Jamme F, Réfrégiers M and Gérard E, CC BY-SA 4.0. Laguna Negra is the southernmost of three lakes aligned north to south in a high valley enclosed by volcanic rock. Laguna Verde lies in the middle, its waters tinted green, and Laguna Tres Quebradas sits to the north, separated from Verde by a white salt pan. Together they form t...

Read more: Laguna Negra, Catamarca on Qualla

Image: Mlewski EC, Pisapia C, Gomez F, Lecourt L, Soto Rueda E, Benzerara K, Ménez B, Borensztajn S, Jamme F, Réfrégiers M and Gérard E | CC BY-SA 4.0

Laguna Negra, Catamarca: The Stromatolite Belt

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mlewski EC, Pisapia C, Gomez F, Lecourt L, Soto Rueda E, Benzerara K, Ménez B, Borensztajn S, Jamme F, Réfrégiers M and Gérard E, CC BY-SA 4.0. Along the southeastern margin of Laguna Negra, where an alluvial fan pushes into the lake and groundwater seeps upward, a 0.3-square-kilometer zone called the Stromatolite Belt hosts an ecosystem unlike almost anything else on the modern Earth. Here, in water no deeper than a han...

Read more: Laguna Negra, Catamarca on Qualla

Image: Mlewski EC, Pisapia C, Gomez F, Lecourt L, Soto Rueda E, Benzerara K, Ménez B, Borensztajn S, Jamme F, Réfrégiers M and Gérard E | CC BY-SA 4.0

Laguna Negra, Catamarca: Life at the Extremes

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mlewski EC, Pisapia C, Gomez F, Lecourt L, Soto Rueda E, Benzerara K, Ménez B, Borensztajn S, Jamme F, Réfrégiers M and Gérard E, CC BY-SA 4.0. The waters of Laguna Negra are hypersaline, their primary salt calcium chloride, with arsenic present at concentrations that would be toxic to most complex life. Temperature swings from 30 degrees Celsius in summer days to well below freezing in winter nights. High salinity preve...

Read more: Laguna Negra, Catamarca on Qualla

Image: Mlewski EC, Pisapia C, Gomez F, Lecourt L, Soto Rueda E, Benzerara K, Ménez B, Borensztajn S, Jamme F, Réfrégiers M and Gérard E | CC BY-SA 4.0

Laguna Negra, Catamarca: A Mirror for Mars

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NASA, Public domain. What makes Laguna Negra remarkable beyond its biology is what it implies. The stromatolites here resemble ancient Precambrian forms more closely than they resemble the more recent Proterozoic examples found elsewhere. The conditions at the lake — extreme aridity, intense UV radia...

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Image: NASA | Public domain