Greenland 2022 GHOST project: Sampling Greenland geothermal springs - expedition report

Abstract

This report describes the GRL22 expedition to Disko Island (West Greenland) to sample the thermal springs generated by residual heat associated with formation of the Icelandic hotspot. Despite the large number of springs present on Disko Island, our knowledge of the microbiology of these springs and how they relate to cycling of volatile elements and controls on their budgets is limited. The aim of the project is to understand the diversity of microbial communities brought to Earth’s surface by spring fluids and to determine their role in biogeochemical cycling. The long-term goal of the project is to combine these data with hot spring data from East Greenland and Iceland. This approach will create a transect in “space and time” across the Icelandic hotspot track, that will allow us to evaluate the potential influences of the plume on the subsurface microbial communities. This leg of the expedition took place between July 25 and August 2, 2022, and nine distinct sites were sampled for microbiology and geochemistry.