We propose the analysis of subsurface microbial and archeal communities</p><p>from hydrothermal waters collected from geothermal exploration drillings</p><p>along the northern part of Greece. All the drillings have been drilled at</p><p>least 10 years ago, are cased up to more than 100 m depth and have</p><p>artesian flow excluding interactions with shallow aquifers. The selected</p><p>sites cover a wide range of temperatures, salinities, and ionic and dissolved gas</p><p>composition. Their features are close to those of continental smokers</p><p>recently defined and characterized in the USA. The main goals of this</p><p>research are to describe the bacterial and archaeal communities of</p><p>European black smokers, to investigate the role of physico-chemical</p><p>characteristics on the distribution of microbial taxa among these</p><p>geothermal waters, to detect novel taxa and to compare life of continental</p><p>smokers with submarine black smokers. Lead PI: Walter D' Alessandro, walter.dalessandro@ingv.it