Mineral-microbe-fluid interactions at the Lost City hydrothermal field

The 50th NIGS Lecture Series featured Dr. Karmina Aquino's talk entitled “Mineral-microbe-fluid interactions at the Lost City hydrothermal field." This talk was the first installment of the lecture series for the 1st Semester of AY 2023-2024, held on September 22, 2023 at the NIGS Seminar Room. Dr. Karmina Aquino obtained her BS and MS Geology degrees at the University of the Philippines and earned her PhD at ETH Zurich. Currently, she is a Research Fellow at the DOST-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute.

Dr. Karmina Aquino explaining how stable isotopes can be used to study environments.

Dr. Aquino's research on the Lost City hydrothermal field highlights how this deep submarine environment on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge serves as a laboratory for understanding theories on the origin and evolution of life on earth. Dr. Aquino presented the processes within the subsurface and seafloor that resulted to compositional heterogeneities in the vent fluid and chimneys. She shared four key aspects from her PhD work: the relationship between vent sites; controls on chimney variability; biotic vs abiotic contributions; and microbial contributions to chimney formation.

The lecture series is co-presented by the Iuvenis Orbis Geological Fraternity as part of the 40th Anniversary of NIGS.

Faculty, students, and public audience listening to Dr. Aquino's talk in the NIGS seminar room.