Life at high temperatures

Today we explored a more in-depth view of extreme thermal conditions. What resources and sources of energy are needed for life? How do extremophiles adapt to utilizes these resources? Why is liquid water so important?

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Students learned how to interpret phase diagrams and extrapolated what this might mean for life living in extreme temperatures and pressures.

Each of the students then used Google Earth to explore one of three high-temperature extreme environments, Grand Prismatic Spring, Ambrym Volcano and Wai-O-Tapu.

By engaging with the three environments on Google Earth street view, students hypothesized what resources and energy sources might be available, predicting the biodiversity and types of organisms that might be found in each high-temperature environment.

The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is the largest hot spring in the United States, and the third largest in the world, after Frying Pan Lake in New Zealand and Boiling Lake in Dominica. It is located in the Midway Geyser Basin. Wikipedia

Ambrym is a volcanic island in Malampa Province in the archipelago of Vanuatu. Volcanic activity on the island includes lava lakes in two craters near the summit. Wikipedia

Waiotapu, also spelt Wai-O-Tapu is an active geothermal area at the southern end of the Okataina Volcanic Centre, just north of the Reporoa caldera, in New Zealand's Taupo Volcanic Zone. It is 27 kilometres south of Rotorua. Wikipedia