Principal Investigator Shuhei Ono
Recent studies suggest the presence of extensive subsurface deepbiosphere. Their metabolic rates are very slow such that it requires a very sensitive and robust technique to detect how active they are. The main objective of the project is to assess if basalt + seawater can sustain lithoautotrophic sulfate reduction during low-T ocean crust weathering. In my NSF funded research, I use high-precision S-33 analysis to tackle this problem. Basis for this is our new S-33 data that show biogenic sulfide tends to be enriched in S-33 by ~0.1 permil. The technique is precise enough to tell this small difference.