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Life Found In Deepest Layer of Earth's Crust

Posted by Soulskill on from the gabbroic-added-to-spellchecker dept.

michaelmarshall writes "For the first time, life has been found in the gabbroic layer of the crust. The new biosphere is all bacteria, as you might expect, but they are different from the bacteria in the layers above; they mostly feed on hydrocarbons that are produced by abiotic reactions deep in the crust. It could mean that similar microbes are living even deeper, perhaps even in the mantle."

1 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Living under surface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This got me thinking an interesting idea.

    Why don't humans populate more of the inner earth? Sure, most people don't like the environment just like that, but you can build it. Make fake environments. In the end, they will look and feel natural too. You can also easily get rid of gasses and other pollution problem by dumping them upwards.

    And if you go deep enough, who owns the land? Can you start a new country like lets say, 50 kilometers below surface?