Extreme environments

Novel insight is often found when stepping beyond the normal, and studying processes in settings with extreme external forcings. Furthermore, such places are often of interest if they are thought to constitute modern analogues to ancient or extraterrestrial life.

Cold seeps
Seeps are windows to the deep subsurface. The rapid translocation of reduced substances from depth to the seafloor drives chemical disequilibria, creating unique niches for life which in turn can alter not only the chemical but also the physical environment (e.g. anaerobic oxidation of methane and carbonate precipitation).

Saline Lakes
Mono Lake, a hypersaline lake located in eastern California, is the site of an ongoing MOBS. It's unique chemical composition allows for a predominance of exotic pathways such as As-reduction which at other places are obscured.

see also the Mono Lake MObs pages