Eger Rift ICDP: an observatory for study of non-volcanic, mid-crustal earthquake swarms and accompanying phenomena

Workshop to develop deep-life continental scientific drilling projects

“…An ICDPsupported drilling project called the Probe Intra-continental magmatic activity by drilling the Eger Rift (PIER drilling project) is being planned (Dahm et al, 2013). The main objective of a deep-life component to this drilling project would be to determine how microbial communities respond to variable lithology and fluid fluxes, including CO 2 , from deeper strata.…”

Drilling into an active mofette: pilot-hole study of the impact of CO<sub>2</sub>-rich mantle-derived fluids on the geo–bio interaction in the western Eger Rift (Czech Republic)

“…The combination of intense CO 2 -rich mantle degassing, ongoing seismic activity including earthquakes swarms and microbiological activity that occurs in the Cheb Basin (western Eger Rift, Czech Republic; Fig. 1) is exceptional and allows the study of bio-geo interactions as part of active geodynamic processes in the lithosphere (Kämpf et al, 1989(Kämpf et al, , 2013Wagner et al, 2007;Bräuer et al, 2007Bräuer et al, , 2008Bräuer et al, , 2011Bräuer et al, , 2014Dahm et al, 2013;Fischer et al, 2014Fischer et al, , 2017Alawi et al, 2015;Schuessler et al, 2016).…”

“…A few continental drilling campaigns have focused on the deep biosphere (Fredrickson et al, 1997;Onstott et al, 1998;Zhang et al, 2005), though the state of knowledge reached is still in the early stages. In deep saline aquifers intended for CO 2 capture and geological storage (CCS), changes in the microbial community caused by injected CO 2 can induce mineral dissolution and precipitation or the formation of biofilms (Onstott, 2005;Mitchell et al, Flechsig et al (2008) and Dahm et al (2013). 2009), and might affect long-term storage efficiency and reliability (Morozova et al, 2010;Gulliver et al, 2016;Pellizzari et al, 2016).…”

“…In the scope of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) project "Drilling the Eger rift: Magmatic fluids driving the earthquake swarms and the deep biosphere" (Dahm et al, 2013), one focus is to determine to which extent the microbial communities are conditioned by the mantle-derived CO 2 degassing and how the microbial activity is potentially affected by seismic events such as swarm earthquakes. As a pre-examination, a research project "Microbial processes in the deep biosphere of the CO 2 -dominated active fault zone in NW Bohemia" started in 2016 and included a 108.5 m deep drilling (Alawi et al, 2015).…”

“…cuni.cz/uhigug/icdp; Dahm et al, 2013) focuses on the interaction between lithospheric geodynamic activity driven by magma generation and magma/fluid escape beneath the Cheb Basin in the western Eger Rift and the microbial communities of the deep biosphere in the upper crust.…”