Louisville Seamount Chain, site U1376A Burton Guyot Metagenome. Louisville Seamount Chain, site U1376A (Burton Guyot)

As part of the initial request for proposals from the Census of Deep Life, Sylvan and Edwards proposal, Subsurface microbial communities in volcanic basement along an ancient hotspot seamount trail, was approved for sequencing. This project aimed to determine the microbial diversity in the subsurface igneous basement of old, inactive seamounts from the Louisville Seamount Chain, drilled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 330. The LSC consists of submerged, inactive volcanoes formed at the Louisville hotspot, one of three primary hotspots in the Pacific Ocean. Basement composition in these seamounts consists of alternating layers of massive lava flows and basaltic breccia. To help understand microbial processes in an ancient, formerly active volcanic subsurface environment, Sylvan sailed as a microbiologist on Expedition 330, during which the samples for the proposed research were collected. PI Jason Sylvan, University of Southern California