Background - A Short Safari Adventure Among Africa's Thorny Bushveld Wildlife - page 13

longer pump water out and because it is under net pressure, the mines will potentially spew
water out of the abandoned mine shafts, creating problems. Of interest, at 3km depth there are
unique bacteria in isolated saline water pockets in crevices that require no sunlight to exist and
are similar to the bacteria at mid-ocean hydrothermal vents. This water is said to be 2 billion
years old. Even more amazing is that Borgone and colleagues reported unique nematode
worms feed on these bacteria. Are these remnants of a distant past, like the Dickinsonia
“worms” discovered by Reg Sprigg in the Ediacara Hills of Australia? Clearly, the deep
subsurface life of earth is a unique area we know very little about in this high temperature
anoxic environment. While the classification of ancient bacteria is changing, the knowledge of
the Archaean organisms is increasing, and these have more recently been reclassified as
separate. These Archaean organisms are a separate class that can tolerate extremes of
temperature, acidity, and lack of oxygen (extremophiles) yet turnout to not only be at thermal
mid ocean vents but also in the colon of animals (ruminants), humans, and termites, known as
methanogens. In humans they may be a factor in producing harmful substances that get absorbed
into the blood stream causing disease. They are involved in producing methane and potentially
contribute to global warming, both from animals but also swamps and other inhospitable
environments, including sewage treatment plants. They appear also to be essential to plankton
in the oceans.
Diamonds are increasingly mined in the parched Kalahari Desert and the process also
demands a lot of water. Meanwhile, the populations in these areas are exploding and
agriculture needs to become more productive to feed the burgeoning populations.
School in Botswana's Arid Kalahari
While African populations on average only need three to five gallons of water per day,
Europeans require about ten times as much and Americans need 30 to 50 times as much - up to
350 gallons a day - especially in dry states like Colorado and Nevada.