Hawaiian Lava Caves Are Full of 'Dark Matter' Bacteria
Hawaii’s volcanic environment contains a mysterious variety of microbes, new research has discovered this week. Scientists say that the island’s lava caves and other structures created by volcanic activity have unique, diverse, and still-living bacterial communities within them. The findings suggest that much remains to be learned about life in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth. Researchers at several universities and NASA collaborated for the study, which was published Thursday in Frontiers in Microbiology. They studied samples collected from 70 sites along the Big Island of Hawaii, the largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. These sites include caves, tubes, and fumaroles, which are openings or vents through which volcanic gases and water can escape. They analyzed and sequenced the RNA found in the samples, making it possible to create a rough map of the bacterial community living there. Stalactite formations in the Hawaiian cave system from this study with co