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  4. Hydrothermal habitats: measurements of bulk microbial elemental composition, and models of hydrothermal influences on the evolution of dwarf planets
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Hydrothermal habitats: measurements of bulk microbial elemental composition, and models of hydrothermal influences on the evolution of dwarf planets

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Description

Finding habitable worlds is a key driver of solar system exploration. Many solar

system missions seek environments providing liquid water, energy, and nutrients, the three ingredients necessary to sustain life.

Such environments include hydrothermal systems, spatially-confined systems where hot aqueous fluid circulates through rock by convection. I sought to characterize hydrothermal microbial communities, collected in hot spring sediments and mats at Yellowstone National Park, USA, by measuring their bulk elemental composition. To do so, one must minimize the contribution of non-biological material to the samples analyzed. I demonstrate that this can be achieved using a separation method that takes advantage of the density contrast between cells and sediment and preserves cellular elemental contents. Using this method, I show that in spite of the tremendous physical, chemical, and taxonomic diversity of Yellowstone hot springs, the composition of microorganisms there is surprisingly ordinary. This suggests the existence of a stoichiometric envelope common to all life as we know it. Thus, future planetary investigations could use elemental fingerprints to assess the astrobiological potential of hydrothermal settings beyond Earth.

Indeed, hydrothermal activity may be widespread in the solar system. Most solar system worlds larger than 200 km in radius are dwarf planets, likely composed of an icy, cometary mantle surrounding a rocky, chondritic core. I enhance a dwarf planet evolution code, including the effects of core fracturing and hydrothermal circulation, to demonstrate that dwarf planets likely have undergone extensive water-rock interaction. This supports observations of aqueous products on their surfaces. I simulate the alteration of chondritic rock by pure water or cometary fluid to show that aqueous alteration feeds back on geophysical evolution: it modifies the fluid antifreeze content, affecting its persistence over geological timescales; and the distribution of radionuclides, whose decay is a chief heat source on dwarf planets. Interaction products can be observed if transported to the surface. I simulate numerically how cryovolcanic transport is enabled by primordial and hydrothermal volatile exsolution. Cryovolcanism seems plausible on dwarf planets in light of images recently returned by spacecrafts. Thus, these coupled geophysical-geochemical models provide a comprehensive picture of dwarf planet evolution, processes, and habitability.

Date Created
2015
Contributors
  • Neveu, Marc François Laurent (Author)
  • Desch, Steven J (Thesis advisor)
  • Anbar, Ariel D (Thesis advisor)
  • Shock, Everett L (Committee member)
  • Elser, James J (Committee member)
  • McNamara, Allen K (Committee member)
  • Arizona State University (Publisher)
Topical Subject
  • Planetology
  • Geochemistry
  • Geobiology
  • astrobiology
  • Dwarf planets
  • Geophysics
  • Hydrothermal systems
  • microbial communities
  • Hydrothermal vent ecology
  • Microbial mats
  • Exobiology
Resource Type
Text
Genre
Doctoral Dissertation
Academic theses
Extent
xix, 347 pages : illustrations (some color)
Language
eng
Copyright Statement
In Copyright
Reuse Permissions
All Rights Reserved
Primary Member of
ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Peer-reviewed
No
Open Access
No
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.35987
Statement of Responsibility
by Marc François Laurent Neveu
Description Source
Retrieved on Dec. 29, 2015
Level of coding
full
Note
Partial requirement for: Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2015
Note type
thesis
Includes bibliographical references (pages 282-334)
Note type
bibliography
Field of study: Astrophysics
System Created
  • 2015-12-01 07:01:51
System Modified
  • 2021-08-30 01:26:39
  •     
  • 1 year 9 months ago
Additional Formats
  • OAI Dublin Core
  • MODS XML

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