Bacteria found in a mine turn CO2 to rock under extreme conditions

Bacteria found deep in a mine shaft in South Dakota may be able to accelerate the mineralisation of carbon dioxide under extreme conditions. Injecting such microbes underground along with captured CO2 could enable more durable storage of the greenhouse gas.

Gokce Ustunisik at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and her colleagues isolated different species of Bacillus bacteria found more than a kilometre beneath the surface in a former mine shaft in South Dakota’s Black Hills. They…