"In the surreal world of Iron Mountain, creeks run a brilliant red, sterile from high doses of heavy metals. Dark-green water, as caustic as battery acid, pours from underground caverns, and poisoned springs bubble up as if from a steaming caldron."
-The Los Angeles Times Apr.10,1993

"They call it Superfund," he said. "I call it a spiritual retreat."
-Ted Arman quoted in the Los Angeles Times, May 10, 2005

As dangerous and uninviting as the conditions may seem based on the quote above, the solutions draining fom Iron Mountain mines are not sterile. In fact, flourishing communities of microorganisms populate this habitat. These microbial communities, and their role in the generation of acid mine drainage, are the focus of DOE (Microbial Genome Program) and NSF (Biocomplexity Program)-funded work at Iron Mountain.

For more information about this project, see Sulfide Mineral Weathering and Acid Mine Drainage Research.

Publications:

• Community structure and metabolism through reconstruction of microbial genomes from the environment. Nature 428, 37-43 (2004).
  Authors: Tyson GW, Chapman J, Hugenholtz P, Allen EE, Ram RJ, Richardson PM, Solovyev VV, Rubin EM, Rokhsar DS, Banfield JF.

• Community Proteomics of a Natural Microbial Biofilm. Science Express, May 5 (2005).
  Authors: Rachna J. Ram, Nathan C. VerBerkmoes, Michael P. Thelen, Gene W. Tyson, Brett J. Baker, Robert C. Blake II, Manesh Shah, Robert L. Hettich, Jillian F. Banfield

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