Hydrothermal deep-sea vents are some of the most intriguing and less investigated ecosystems on Earth. Their study could provide unique opportunities to access fundamental knowledge on their biodiversity and their geochemical dynamic.

High-pressure geomicrobiologists developed devices to sample and further investigate these ecosystems at lab scale. These major advances provided new insights in the mechanisms governing the coupled thermo-hydro-bio-chemical processes occurring in deep-sea vents. However, only a small fraction of the parameter space of vent systems have been replicated so far, considering limited pressure and temperature ranges, not accounting for the microbial diversity, nor the geochemical gradients and reactive biochemical flows characteristics of the chimney’s structures.

This session aims at gathering interdisciplinary fields of research in geomicrobiology, geochemistry, origins of life, high-pressure engineering, etc. Therefore, recent research considering wide ranges of temporal and spatial scales are highly welcome, including in situ measurements, fast screening, lab scale studies or numerical modelling.