ABSTRACT
Occurrence and distribution of high temperature environments High temperature environments are widely distributed and of many different types. The best known are probably hot springs, geysers and surrounding sulphur-containing soils (solfataras). Equivalent hydrothermal environments, such as vents and seamounts (underwater volcanoes), have also received considerable recent attention. Some oil fields, such as those of the North Sea are also high temperature environments, having much in common with hydrothermal systems. All of these are physically large environments, but localized high temperature environments occur world-wide in such places as spontaneously heated coal tips and compost heaps. In these situations, as well as in metal leaching operations (see page 139), steep temperature gradients may be present leading to thermophilic micro-organisms and their non-thermophilic counterparts growing in close proximity.
