Fig. 3: Lava tube in El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico.
From: Young volcanic terrains are windows into early microbial colonization
a Top-down view of point cloud LiDAR data of Four Windows Cave in El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico. Elevation values were converted to gray scale with dark colors corresponding to lower elevations. Shape edges were shaded with an eye-dome lighting model. The surface is removed in the center part of the figure to expose the subsurface lava tube (data from Bardabelias et al.238). The white boxes correspond to photographs b–c. b Top view of a skylight into Four Windows Cave (Photo credit: N. Hadland). c Dark interior of Four Windows Cave. Mineral precipitates and textured surfaces on the walls are visible (Photo credit: N. Hadland). d The edge of the twilight zone in Four Windows Cave where light progressively drops out. Directly beneath the skylight, moss and Cyanobacteriota films visibly dominate (Photo credit: N. Hadland).
