Introduction: Reports of methane in the Martian atmosphere have spurred speculation about sources for that methane [1-3]. Discussion has centered on cometary/ meteoritic delivery, magmatic/mantle processes, UVbreakdown of organics, serpentinization of basalts, and generation of methane by living organisms. This paper describes an additional possibility: that buried organic remains from past lif...

Oze et al. (1) observed generation of methane (CH4) during experimental serpentinization of olivine, and use the results to make inferences about sources of methane in natural serpentinites. Their data interpretation, however, is directly contradicted by results of prior studies, critically undermining the credibility of their conclusions. Several prior studies conducted using experimental meth...

Troodos is a classical ophiolite complex. It is proposed that the serpentinized harzburgites that now form the top of the mountain and represent the originally lowest part of the ophiolite sequence rose as a diapir. This diapiric rise is caused by the pervasive serpentinization of a suboceanic harzburgite, due to rock-sea water interaction. The serpentinization caused a 44% expansion of the roc...

The surface waters at the ultramafic ophiolitic outcrop in Chimaera, Turkey, are characterized by high pH values and high metal levels due to the percolation of fluids through areas of active serpentinization. We describe the influence of the liquid chemistry, mineralogy, and H2 and CH4 levels on the bacterial community structure in a semidry, exposed, ultramafic environment. The bacterial and ...

Hydrothermal venting and the formation of carbonate chimneys in the Lost City hydrothermal field (LCHF) are driven predominantly by serpentinization reactions and cooling of mantle rocks, resulting in a highly reducing, high-pH environment with abundant dissolved hydrogen and methane. Phylogenetic and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses of 16S rRNA genes in fluids and car...

Ultra-basic reducing springs at continental sites of serpentinization act as portals into the biogeochemistry of a subsurface environment with H2 and CH4 present. Very little, however, is known about the carbon substrate utilization, energy sources, and metabolic pathways of the microorganisms that live in this ultra-basic environment. The potential for microbial methanogenesis with bicarbonate...