Rate My Professor Riikka Kietäväinen

Riikka Kietäväinen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences and Geography at the University of Helsinki, where she leads the Sustainable Earth Resources research group as part of the GeoHel research program. Her research centers on the deep crystalline rock biosphere, hydrogeochemistry of deep subsurface environments, microbial communities in bedrock fracture fluids, methane origin and cycling, and naturally occurring volatile organic compounds in groundwater. She investigates processes such as microbial methanogenesis fueled by freshwater infiltration, threshold responses of soil greenhouse gas fluxes, and the dominance of specific microbes like Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator in deep groundwater communities.

Kietäväinen obtained her PhD from the University of Helsinki with a dissertation titled 'Deep Groundwater Evolution at Outokumpu, Eastern Finland.' Previously, she worked as a Senior Researcher at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) in Espoo. Her career includes characterizing isotopic evolution of saline waters in deep drill holes, noble gas residence times in crystalline bedrock, and abiotic and biotic controls on methane formation down to 2.5 km depth within the Precambrian Fennoscandian Shield. Key publications encompass 'The origin, source, and cycling of methane in deep crystalline rock biosphere' (Frontiers in Microbiology, 2015, cited 109 times), 'Microbial co-occurrence patterns in deep Precambrian bedrock fracture fluids' (Biogeosciences, 2016, cited 97 times), 'Characterisation and isotopic evolution of saline waters of the Outokumpu Deep Drill Hole, Finland–Implications for water origin and deep terrestrial biosphere' (Applied Geochemistry, 2013, cited 77 times), 'Microbiome composition and geochemical characteristics of deep subsurface high-pressure environment, Pyhäsalmi mine Finland' (Frontiers in Microbiology, 2015, cited 70 times), 'Dissecting the deep biosphere: retrieving authentic microbial communities from packer-isolated deep crystalline bedrock fracture zones' (FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 2013, cited 70 times), 'Ultradeep microbial communities at 4.4 km within crystalline bedrock: implications for habitability in a planetary context' (Life, 2020, cited 64 times), and recent articles such as 'Naturally occurring volatile organic compounds in deep bedrock groundwater' (Communications Earth & Environment, 2025). She supervises doctoral candidates in the Doctoral Programme in Geosciences and edited proceedings for the Lithosphere 2024 event. With over 700 citations, her contributions have advanced knowledge of deep life habitability, crustal fluid evolution, and sustainable earth resources including geological hydrogen.