Life On Basaltic Rocks
The common corrosion features of underwater volcanic basalt suggest that microbial activity may play a significant role in the chemical exchange between basaltic rocks and seawater. The significant amounts of reduced iron, Fe(II), and manganese, Mn(II), present in basaltic rocks provide potential energy sources for bacteria. Recent research has shown that some Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria cultured from iron-sulfide surfaces are also able to grow with basaltic rock as a source of Fe(II). In recent work at Loihi Seamount, Fe- and Mn- oxidizing bacteria have been cultured from weathered basalts. The impact of bacteria on altering the chemical composition of basaltic glass (and thus, the oceanic crust) and seawater suggest that these interactions may lead to an application of hydrothermal vents to the origin of life.
Read more about this topic: Basalt
Famous quotes containing the words life, basaltic and/or rocks:
“Our role is to support anything positive in black life and destroy anything negative that touches it. You have no other reason for being. I don’t understand art for art’s sake. Art is the guts of the people.”
—Elma Lewis (b. 1921)
“I lived for a long time under vast porticos
That maritime suns tinted with a thousand fires,
And whose great pillars, straight and majestuous
In the evening made seem like basaltic caves.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“There is no pleasing New Englanders, my dear, their soil is all rocks and their hearts are bloodless absolutes.”
—John Updike (b. 1932)