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Abstract:

During open-pit quarrying and related lowering of groundwater level in the gypsum karst aquifer (since 1950), large cave Zoloushka became accessible for direct exploration, in which considerable geochemical transformations of environment occurred, accompanied by the formation of specific deposits, as well as by burst of microbial activity. Among microorganisms, some of the most active were various iron bacteria. Microbial activity has resulted in precipitation of black and red biochemical formations – microbialites (coatings, crusts, films, stalactites, stalagmites, etc.), which cover walls and floors of cave passages. Most interesting among the microbialites are iron-rich colonial formations of various shapes (stalagmite-like, tube-like, coral-like, etc.) formed by yet unidentified fungi-like microorganisms which likely are new to science. In this paper, we characterize occurrence and morphology of the colonial aggregates, morphology and chemical composition of microorganisms  and develop working hypotheses of their identification.