Evidence Against Hydrogen-Based Microbial Ecosystems in Basalt Aquifers
Robert T. Anderson, Francis H. Chapelle, Derek R. Lovley 1998 Science v281, n5379, pp976 - 977
This Science scholarly article provides information regarding experiments that demonstrated that hydrogen is not produced from microorganisms living in basalt. It has been proposed that hydrogen produced from basalt-groundwater interactions may serve as an energy source that supports the existence of microorganisms in the deep subsurface on Earth and possibly on other planets. However, due to rates of hydrogen production, these findings indicate that hydrogen production from basalt-groundwater interactions may not support microbial metabolism in the subsurface.