GeoBiological Groundwater Research
Group GeoBiological Groundwater Research
GroupAn interdisciplinary research group to address scientific questions using geological, biological, and hydrological methods.
Bacterial colonies on Gypsum Crystals
( Lake Lucero, White Sands National Monument)
- REGULAR MEETINGS LAST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH AT 12:00 PM, ROOM GEO 401!
- Effects of pH and geological medium on bacteriophage MS2 transport in a model aquifer, Geomicrobiology Journal, vol. 20, p. 73-84, 2003.
- Book publication: Life in the Universe: Expectations and Constraints. Springer, Berlin, scheduled to come out in March 2004.
- The effect of critical pH on virus fate and transport in a saturated porous medium. Ground Water, vol. 41, no. 5, p. 701-708, 2003.
- Microbial and chemical characterization of a ground-water flow system in an intermontane basin of southern New Mexico. Hydrogeology Journal, vol. 11, p. 401-412, 2003.
- Strategy for Modeling Putative Multilevel Ecosystems on Europa. In press in Astrobiology.
- Life in the Solar System Discussion Group
- Titan Study Group Local Page
Dirk Schulze-Makuch/Geosciences
Bart Rzonca/Geosciences
John Kennedy/Geosciences
Rene Hilton/Environmental Science and Engineering
Alfonso Muñoz/Geosciences
Huade Guan/Geosciences
Alberto Barud/Geosciences/Engineering
Monica Brinkley/Geosciences
Ben Diaz/MSIS
Gabriel Acevedo/Geosciences
Emile Couroux/Geosciences
Tanya Lehner/Geosciences
Frank Hielscher/Geosciences
Sonny Emmert/Environmental Science
Ousama Abbas/Environmental Science & Enginnering
Yessica Ortega/Biological Sciences
Ahmad Abdel-Fattah/Environmental Science & Engineering
Edith Jaurreata/ BSESAssociate Members:
Thomas Kretzschmar, Hydrochemist at the Department of Engineering, Universidad Autonoma de Cd. Juarez, Mexico
Philip Goodell Geochemist at the Department of Geological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso e-mail
Christoph Vogt, Sedimentary Mineralogist, Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Germany e-mail
Suresh Pillai, Environmental Microbiology & Food Safety, Texas A&M University at College Station e-mail
John Walton, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Texas at El Paso e-mail
Louis N. Irwin, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso e-mail
Projects:
1.Bioremediation and Applied Geobiology
Enhanced biodegradation of diesel contamination using warm, humidified air (Project Manager/Contact:Alfonso Muñoz)Characterization of Hydrothermal Springs/ Hydrothermal Database (Project Manager/Contact:Gabriel Acevedo)
Bank filtration technology for arid climates (Project Manager/Contact:Ahmad Abdel-Fattah)
2.Transport of Bacteria and Viruses in the Subsurface and Wetlands
Investigation of bacterial transport in a model aquifer (Project Manager/Contact: Tanya Lehner)Investigation of virus transport in a wetland (Project Manager/Contact:Emile Couroux /Frank Hielscher)Use of surfactant modified zeolite to adsorb microbes in ground water (Project Manager/Contact:Tanya Lehner)3.Extreme Environments and the Origin of Life/ Chemical Hydrogeology
Physical, Chemical and Microbial Characterization of White Sands National Monument (Project Manager/Contact: Alberto Barud)Microbial and chemical characterization of hydrothermal fluids in Southern New Mexico (Project Manager/Contact: Dirk Schulze-Makuch/John F. Kennedy)
Detection of hydrothermal springs via remote sensing (Project Manager/Contact: Ben Diaz)
4.Planetary Hydrology/Astrobiology
Survival rates of selected microbes under cold vacuum and high UV (Project Manager/Contact: Ben Diaz)
Alternative energy sources could support life (Project Manager/Contact: Dirk Schulze-Makuch /Louis Irwin)
Search Parameters for the Remote Detection of Extraterrestrial Life (Project Manager/Contact:Dirk Schulze-Makuch)
Lake Lucero, White Sands National Monument.
Active Grants:
Exploration of Geothermal Discharge Areas Using Remote Sensing and Hydrogeological
Methods / NASA
Zeolite - based Filters and their Potential to Remove Giardia and Cryptosporidium from Drinking Water / EPA
Small - Scale Spatial Occurrance Trends of Arsenic in Ground Water Resources
of the Paso del Norte Region / EPA
Control of Cryptosporidium and Giardia Species in Drinking Water using Surfactant Modified Zeolite / WERC
Riverbank Filtration Effectiveness in an Arid Environment/EPA
Novel Nanocomposite Photocatalyst for Water Treatment/NIH
Extract from "One and Future Moon", Lunar and Planetary Institute poster, LPI Contribution No. 974,1999. Main Frame: Clementine visual mosaic of the lunar south pole region; Earth-side at top; from 80 deg. S to the pole. From 650 images. Enlarged frame: Illumination conditions of the south pole, in terms of fraction of the lunar day (708 hours) a given area is in sunlight. Upper right:part of south pole Lunar Prospector neutron spectrometer map of relative hydrogen concentration; purple highest, yellow/green lowest. From Freedman et al., 1998.
Last Update: 23 January 2004