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Mysterious Life of Caves
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Program Overview
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NOVA follows geologists and microbiologists as they explore caves in
various stages of formation to investigate the role microbes play in
the creation of some limestone caves.
The program:
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reviews the traditional theory that caves form when weak
carbonic acid—created when flowing rain and groundwater
pick up carbon dioxide from the air and soil—penetrates
cracks in rocks and dissolves the limestone.
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introduces the theory that microbial processes are responsible
for the production of sulfuric acid that forms some caves.
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examines how researchers studying caves in New Mexico's
Guadalupe Mountains came to theorize that microbes feeding on
oil far beneath the caves produced hydrogen sulfide gas that
seeped into the rock above, mixed with oxygen in the
groundwater, and formed limestone-dissolving sulfuric acid.
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reviews other environments in which microbes live in extreme
heat, pressure, and darkness.
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presents the discovery of microbes in caves that survive solely
on chemical nutrients, including a type that eats hydrogen
sulfide gas and excretes sulfuric acid.
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