We went to this place near Baker called Little Red Hill. It is a Mars analog site.
It looks a lot like Mars!
The rocks are all dark red, like Mars.
It's not quartz, so you wouldn't expect much light to pass through it
There isn't any quartz. But, when you turn rocks over you find bright green cyanobacteria living underneath! How can they get any light, living under dark rocks?
Just look at all that hypolithic cyanobacteria!
The answer is evident when you break one of these rocks open. It is sparkly white marble inside, as bright as sugar. The red is only a thin iron oxide crust on the outside. These rocks transmit plenty of light to their undersides, and the undersides of the rocks are moister and cooler than the top surfaces.
Most hypoliths found in the Arctic and **Antarctic **were under white rocks like quartz. Maybe we should look for this kind of hypolith in the polar regions too.
It's white crystalline marble inside