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Agenda
for the plenary workshop sessions in Underground Physics.
All links marked with a⇓ can be used to show/hide the abstracts and presentations.
Click here to show/hide all presentations and abstracts and here for a print version.
You may also download the compact program booklet (PDF, 1.9 MB)
and an abstract booklet (PDF, 0.4 MB).
As long as authors provided us with PDF versions of their slides, the corresponding downloads are available on this page.
Monday – Sep 5, 2011
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12:25 – 13:00 |
Underground Physics I
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Plenary Session (Festsaal) – Chair:
Takaaki Kajita
12:25
(25' + 10')
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Status of deep underground laboratories⇓
slides
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Nigel Smith (SNOLAB)
Several of the major questions studied in contemporary astro-particle and sub-atomic physics are performed through weak interaction studies or rare event searches that require the ultra-quiet environment afforded by deep underground facilities, where the cosmic radiation induced backgrounds in the detection systems are reduced to a manageable level. This talk will provide a review of the status of, and future plans for, deep underground facilities around the world, highlighting the expansions to available laboratory experimental space that have recently occurred, or are planned in the near future. Additionally, major facilities that will be hosted in these laboratories will be outlined.
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Friday – Sep 9, 2011
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09:00 – 09:35 |
Underground Physics II
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Plenary Session (Festsaal) – Chair:
Barbara De Lotto
09:00
(25' + 10')
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Underground research laboratories and deep mines as a window into subsurface microbiology⇓
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Barbara Sherwood Lollar (University of Toronto)
Chemolithotrophic communities, or microbes drawing their energy for life from geologically produced chemical species rather than from photosynthesis, were discovered in the late 1970s at the mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal vents. This discovery sparked a revolution in our understanding of the range of possible mechanisms for sustaining life and hence in our concept of where on this planet life could be found. Since that time, our understanding that life is not simply a thin veneer on the earth's surface but may permeate deep into the subsurface of this planet has evolved rapidly. Serpentinization of ultramafic rocks and alteration of basaltic ocean floor have been invoked as key mechanisms by which geochemical processes of water-rock interaction may provide energy and reducing power for chemoautotrophic microbial communities on the seafloor. In continental settings, H2-utilizing chemoautotrophic microbial communities have been identified in volcanic hot springs, and research in groundwater aquifers suggests that H2-fueled autotrophic microbial ecosystems might be widespread in continental flood basalts. A major gap remains in our understanding of life in the deep, but not so hot, biosphere. Investigations, particularly in the continental or terrestrial deep subsurface, are recognizing that chemosynthetic communities are not restricted to the high temperature hydrothermal vents and springs, but can be sustained under lower temperature regimes by similar types of water-rock reactions, albeit at slower rates. The implications of this conceptual evolution are profound, as it suggests much larger volumes of the Earth’s subsurface may be habitable. Taking advantage of deep boreholes, subsurface mines and deep research laboratories worldwide, researchers in geology, geochemistry, hydrogeology, microbiology and genomics are mobilizing to explore Earth’s "Inner Space". The presentation will highlight work at underground sites in 2-3 billion year old Precambrian Shield rocks in South Africa, Canada and Finland where isotope geochemistry has identified large accumulations of free H2 gas, methane and higher hydrocarbons dissolved in saline fracture waters with residence times on the order of millions of years. Within these fracture waters, a low biomass chemolithotrophic microbial community couples H2 consumption to sulfate-reduction to eke out an existence at maintenance levels in an exotic outpost of life far from the photosphere.
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Updated 4 August 2012
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