We have observed filamentous carbon-rich structures in samples drilled at 3 different seamounts that belong to the Emperor Seamounts in the Pacific Ocean: Detroit (81 Ma), Nintoku (56 Ma), and Koko Seamounts (48 Ma). The samples consist of low-temperature altered basalts recovered from all 3 seamounts. The maximum depth from which the samples were retrieved was 954 meters below seafloor (mbsf). The filamentous structures occur in veins and fractures in the basalts, where they are attached to the vein walls and embedded in vein-filling minerals like calcite, aragonite, and gypsum. The filaments were studied with a combination of optical microscopy, environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), Raman spectroscopy, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). Minerals were identified by a combination of optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectrometry, and energy dispersive spectrometry on an environmental scanning electron microscope. Carbon content of the filaments ranges between approximately 10 wt % and approximately 50 wt % and is not associated with carbonates. These results indicate an organic origin of the carbon. The presence of C(2)H(4), phosphate, and lipid-like molecules in the filaments further supports a biogenic origin. We also found microchannels in volcanic glass enriched in carbon (approximately 10-40 wt %) compatible with putative microbial activity. Our findings suggest new niches for life in subseafloor environments and have implications for further exploration of the subseafloor biosphere on Earth and beyond.

In this paper we describe carbon-rich filamentous structures observed in association with the zeolite mineral phillipsite from sub-seafloor samples drilled and collected during the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 197 at the Emperor Seamounts. The filamentous structures are approximately 5 microm thick and approximately 100-200 microm in length. They are found attached to phillipsite surfaces in veins and entombed in vein-filling carbonates. The carbon content of the filaments ranges between approximately 10 wt% C and 55 wt% C. They further bind to propidium iodide (PI), which is a dye that binds to damaged cell membranes and remnants of DNA. Carbon-rich globular microstructures, 1-2 microm in diameter, are also found associated with the phillipsite surfaces as well as within wedge-shaped cavities in phillipsite assemblages. The globules have a carbon content that range between approximately 5 wt% C and 55 wt% C and they bind to PI. Ordinary globular iron oxides found throughout the samples differ in that they contain no carbon and do not bind to the dye PI. The carbon-rich globules are mostly concentrated to a film-like structure that is attached to the phillipsite surfaces. This film has a carbon content that ranges between approximately 25 wt% C and 75 wt% C and partially binds to PI. EDS analyses show that the carbon in all structures described are not associated with calcium and therefore not bound in carbonates. The carbon content and the binding to PI may indicate that the filamentous structures could represent fossilized filamentous microorganisms, the globules could represent fossilized microbial cells and the film-like structures could represent a microbially produced biofilm. Our results extend the knowledge of possible habitable niches for a deep biosphere in sub-seafloor environments and suggests, as phillipsite is one of the most common zeolite mineral in volcanic rocks of the oceanic crust, that it could be a common feature in the oceanic crust elsewhere.

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Abstract. The Proterozoic Pahtohavare Cu-Au deposit is located in the greenstone belt near Kiruna, northern Sweden. The greenstone consists of mafic volcanic rocks with pillow lavas, mafic sills and albitized rocks, including tuffites, black schists and mafic sills, together with carbonates and mineralized zones. Mineralization occurs as impregnations, epigenetic quartz-rich breccias and fracture fillings with pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and gold in a complex tectonic environment. Fluid inclusions indicate an early formation of quartz and pyrite at temperatures initially near 500 °C and a pressure of 2-2.4 kbar from a supersaturated aqueous solution of magmatic origin. In addition to halite cubes, daughter minerals of sylvite, calcite, hematite, graphite and two unknown phases are found. The main stage of chalcopyrite and gold deposition is characterized by aqueous fluids of variable salinity (up to 30 eq. wt.% NaCI including CaCI2) , at temperatures below 350 °C and pressures between 1 and 2 kbar. A minor CO2 phase with some N2 accompanies this stage. Gold was transported as a chloride complex which destabilized due to an increase in pH (as a consequence of the CO2 loss) as well as cooling and dilution of the solution. The ore deposition occurred as a result of mixing with a low salinity aqueous solution during tectonic fracturing with pressure fluctuations and CO2 unmixing. Late oxidation of ores was caused by low to moderately saline (3 to 13 eq. wt.% NaCI) low temperature aqueous solutions.