Frontiers | Water and Rock Chemistry Inform Our Understanding of the Deep Biosphere: Case Study in an Archaean Banded Iron Formation
Research into the deep biosphere requires an understanding of both the microbial community at a given site and the geochemical and hydrological factors that support that microbial community. To highlight the interplay between geochemistry and microbiology in these deep environments, we characterized the hydrogeologic and geochemical systems of a 2.7 Ga banded iron formation within the Canadian Shield in the Soudan Underground Mine State Park in Minnesota, USA, a site known to host a lithotrophic microbial community. Calcium-sodium-chloride brines, characteristic of deep groundwaters throughout...
Source: frontiersin.org