The Yellowstone supervolcano in the USA has had several giant eruptions in the past
A team of scientists studied the impact of earthquakes on underground life in Yellowstone, where organisms thrive far from the heat and energy of the Sun, and analyzed how they alter what is available on the microbial “menu” beneath the caldera of the North American supervolcano.
Yellowstone National Park in the United States is famous for its geological activity, including earthquakes.
Although rumors are rife that it is about to erupt in a devastating volcanic cataclysmYellowstone naturally experiences thousands of small earthquakes per year.
In 2021, for example, Yellowstone suffered 27 seismic swarmsthat is, clusters of earthquakes that occurred at the same place and time. Only one of these swarms had 825 tremorsremember .
In one published on Tuesday in the magazine PNAS Nexusa team of scientists analyzed how small earthquakes that occurred in 2021 influenced microorganisms present in the rock systems and aquifers beneath the Yellowstone Range Volcanic Field.
These forms of life do not obtain energy through photosynthesisbut rather from chemical reactions related to the movement of water through fractured rocks.
The results of the study can help understand how life can exist in unexpected places and have implications for the search for extraterrestrial lifenote or .
“Seismic energy, such as that released by earthquakes, can fracture rock and thus change the flow paths of underground fluidsfreeing substrates from inclusions and exposing fresh mineral surfaces capable of reacting with water”, explains Eric Boydresearcher at Montana State University (MSU) and lead author of the study.
“All these events can trigger new chemical reactions. However, It is not clear how These changes induced by seismic activity influence microbial communities”, adds the MSU researcher.
To fill this gap, researchers collected water samples from a drilling site located on the western shore of Yellowstone Lake, at five different times throughout 2021.
This approach revealed a significant increase in hydrogen levelssulfide and dissolved organic carbon after earthquakes — crucial energy sources for many subterranean organisms.
It was also recorded a increase of planktonic cellsindicating that the water column housed more microorganisms than observed before two earthquakes.
These chemical and biological changes suggest that seismic activity temporarily increased the resources available for microbial life. Furthermore, achange in the types of molecules over time.
This fact is especially relevantsince underground microbial communities in continental rock aquifers are usually considered quite stable. However, the underground system analyzed appears to have changed quickly and clearly in response to seismic energy.
The team concluded that the kinetic energy of earthquakes can affect the chemistry and biology of fluids in aquifers — underground areas of rock saturated with water that can supply wells and springs.
The results suggest that even small seismic events can cause significant changes in underground ecosystems.
Yellowstone is not the only region with regular seismic activityso similar earthquakes in other areas could trigger similar changes in underground energy resources. If this process is common, it could help explain how microorganisms survive in deep, isolated environments.
More so, This could have implications for life beyond Earth. If a similar mechanism occurs on other rocky planets with water, it could extend our understanding potential habitats for small extraterrestrial organisms on places like Mars.
