Dissertation
GEOCHEMICAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF A NATURAL ASPHALT LAKE AND ITS RELEVANCE TO ASTROBIOLOGY
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2017
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/112285
Abstract
The Earth’s Archean and Proterozoic eons offer the best opportunity for investigating a microbial world, such as might be found elsewhere in the cosmos. The discovery of microbial diversity in a natural asphalt lake is of utmost importance to both environmentalists and astrobiologists. Pitch Lake in Trinidad is the prime source of natural asphalt for the local community and a potential terrestrial analogue for studying life forms in hydrocarbon lakes elsewhere in the Universe. The primary objective of this study was to answer the following questions:
(1) What are geological processes and mechanisms with which this terrestrial asphalt lake has formed? (2) What is the role of the microbial ecosystem in shaping the geochemistry of the lake and the relevance of the geomicrobiological processes of the lake in Earth and planetary sciences?
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Details
- Title
- GEOCHEMICAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF A NATURAL ASPHALT LAKE AND ITS RELEVANCE TO ASTROBIOLOGY
- Creators
- Afshin Khan
- Contributors
- Peter B Larson (Advisor)Dirk S Makuch (Committee Member)Michael Knoblauch (Committee Member)John A Wolff (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- School of the Environment (CAHNRS)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 165
- Identifiers
- 99900581825401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation