HR: 1340h
AN: OS43A-0526    [Abstracts]
TI: Global Distribution of Microbial Alteration of the Ocean Crust
AU: * Josef, J A
EM: jjosef@coas.oregonstate.edu
AF: College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Oregon State University, 104 COAS Admin Bldg., Corvallis, OR 97331 United States
AU: Storrie-Lombardi, M C
EM: mike@kinohi.org
AF: Kinohi Institute, 530 S. Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101 United States
AU: Fisk, M R
EM: mfisk@coas.oregonstate.edu
AF: College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Oregon State University, 104 COAS Admin Bldg., Corvallis, OR 97331 United States
AB: Early evidence for a deep subsurface biosphere in ocean crust came from unusual alteration textures within petrographic thin sections. The textures are attributed to microbial activity within basalt minerals and glass. Microbial textures have now been found in DSDP and ODP holes and in sea floor surface basalt from around the globe. These samples revealed a variety of unique alteration textures, and our hypothesis is that similar textures are the result of similar conditions in ocean crust environments. One-hundred and five petrographic thin sections from DSDP and ODP drill cores from the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea were used to create a library of images of microbial alteration textures. Prevalent textures include straight, curving, segmented and angular twisting tunnels, mushroom shaped structures, and fungus-like groups of alteration. We are using Lossless Compression Analysis on our library of images to distinguish and classify the variety of alteration textures. Currently we are classifying textures both down-hole and across ocean basins and correlating the occurrence of similar textures with measured drill-hole properties, including age, location of the sample, water depth, basalt temperature, type and amount of sediment cover, depth within the basalt, and secondary minerals.
DE: 4805 Biogeochemical cycles (1615)
DE: 4840 Microbiology
DE: 4803 Bacteria
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805)
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting