It was first described in 1868 for a sample from a hydrothermal nickel-uranium vein from Johanngeorgenstadt, Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany and named for German chemist Robert William Eberhard Bunsen (1811–1899).
It consists of one species, G. ahangari, isolated from the Guaymas Basin hydrothermal system located deep within the Gulf of California.
George W. Morey at the Carnegie Institution and later, Percy W. Bridgman at Harvard University did much of the work to lay the foundations necessary to containment of reactive media in the temperature and pressure range where most of the hydrothermal work is conducted.
Jack Corliss, scientist and discoverer of undersea hydrothermal vents