Introduction to the Pavilion Lake Research Project
Read the News from the PLRP project leads and view the public calendar.
The Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) is an international, multi-disciplinary, science and exploration effort to explain the origin of freshwater microbialites in Pavilion Lake, British Columbia, Canada. Fossil microbialites represent some of the earliest remnants of life on ancient Earth, and were common from ~2.5 billion to 540 million years ago. Today, microbialites are found in environments where conditions are often too harsh for most organisms. However, the microbialites in Pavilion Lake have provided a new environment for the scientific community to study that demonstrates that large, and uniquely shaped structures can also occur in non-extreme environments that also support fish, plants and other species. The microbialites of Pavilion Lake are relevant to our understanding of ancient microbialites that were once common and diverse on early Earth, as such, Pavilion Lake has become an exciting field site for Earth scientists and astrobiologists who are interested in the application of the PLRP research to the search for life in our solar system and beyond. The project began in 2004, and has grown in exciting new directions ever since. Thank you for your interest!
Dr. Allyson Brady, Acting Principal Investigator for the Pavilion Lake Research Project, discusses the unique microbialite structures in Pavilion Lake, and the project's role in space-analog research.
Connect with PLRP
mars - Rover A science backroom @DESERT_RATS! Tracking the traverse & recording science observations. http://twitpic.com/2mgovx
10:08 AM September 8th via Twitpic
At the Desert RATS field testing in Arizona - following Rover A as it drives to its first EVA site, on the side of a volcano. #DESERT_RATS
9:46 AM September 8th via web
Meet The Team
Alex Forrest
Alex is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Dr. Bernard Laval. His research interests include combining field and numerical modeling techniques to describe the geochemistry and the fluid me...
Funding and support provided by:
PLRP is funded by the CSA CARN program and NASA MMAMA program. Additional funding provided by NASA ESMD Analogs, NASA ASTEP and Nuytco Research. Previous support for the program has also been received from the NASA Spaceward Bound Program, the National Geographic Society, and McMaster University.
Recent Blog Posts
A helo flight to prepare for next year
by Marc Seibert on July 23rd, 2010
Next year the team will be diving into a lake called Kelly Lake, and potentially Pavilion Lake at the same time. This creates a challenge for the communications team. Both sites must have broadband access to the Space Network Research Federation (SNRF) and the Internet, and be able to [...]
Pavilion Lake Research Project: Wrapping up 2010
by Allyson Brady on July 20th, 2010
The PLRP 2010 field season has come to a close and I am both saddened by the fact that operations are finished for another year but excited by the prospect of adding the data we’ve collected this year to our growing body of knowledge about this unique lake. I am in awe of the work [...] [...]