The geyser in Andernach does this every two hours. Dr. Alexander J. Probst, biology professor at the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), found out which single-celled organisms live there and how they bind CO2. The results have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Geysers arise from hot springs in volcanic rock and shoot up into the air as fountains of water or steam. In Iceland and New Zealand, they usually spew hot steam accordingly. In Andernach (Rhineland-Palatinate), however, the geyser is driven by released carbon dioxide, and the erupted water is cold. With an ejection height of up to 60 meters, it is the world’s highest cold-water geyser.
“For this, we sampled several eruptions in Andernach. Then we filtered the microbes from the deep water.”
- Prof. Dr. Alexander J. Probst
Most frequently, the UDE researchers:in found so-called altiarchaea. Professor Probst is also researching these single-celled organisms in a sulfur spring near Regensburg (https://www.uni-due.de/2021–07-30-viren-wirt-archaeum-alexander-probst).
The small creatures found their habitat in the Andernach geyser 350 meters below ground. “The deep biosphere is home to almost 70 percent of all microbes on our planet,” says Probst. The great thing is that “the majority of them bind CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it into organic matter. True, it’s only a fraction of the greenhouse gas. But given the amount of CO2 released from the mantle each year, it’s still substantial. At the same time, the gases seem to make microbes grow faster at depth.”
