Day 6: Scouting out Little Hot Creek

Today we scouted out the site of our major field sampling event tomorrow. It is called Little Hot Creek. It is a series of hot springs that feed into the Little Hot Creek, which is part of the Owens River region. These are gorgeous springs that are relatively pristine. Microbial mats and carbonate precipitation are all occurring in the same general area so there is a lot for the Geobiologist to study. Our main interest is in determining how the microbial communities change along the creek with changing temperature and water chemistry. We are also interested in how the interaction between microorganisms and the minerals cause stromatolite-like structures in the water (see below).

The students spend the afternoon investigating the site, then we shooed them away and the instructors refined our sampling scheme to accommodate the changes since December when we were last out there. Meanwhile, the students headed down to a series of cement baths that the Forest Service put in. There are almost always some “soakers” there, interesting people. One guy is living up in the hills above the area (Stick Man), another (Donald) is living/traveling in his truck. Both seemed to be good people, interested in what we were studying and happy to have 15 co-eds soaking with them.