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Scientists Identify Vast Underground Ecosystem Containing Billions of Micro-organisms (theguardian.com)
The Earth is far more alive than previously thought, according to "deep life" studies that reveal a rich ecosystem beneath our feet that is almost twice the size of that found in all the world's oceans. From a report: Despite extreme heat, no light, minuscule nutrition and intense pressure, scientists estimate this subterranean biosphere is teeming with between 15bn and 23bn tonnes of micro-organisms, hundreds of times the combined weight of every human on the planet. Researchers at the Deep Carbon Observatory say the diversity of underworld species bears comparison to the Amazon or the Galapagos Islands, but unlike those places the environment is still largely pristine because people have yet to probe most of the subsurface.
"It's like finding a whole new reservoir of life on Earth," said Karen Lloyd, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. "We are discovering new types of life all the time. So much of life is within the Earth rather than on top of it." The team combines 1,200 scientists from 52 countries in disciplines ranging from geology and microbiology to chemistry and physics. A year before the conclusion of their 10-year study, they will present an amalgamation of findings to date before the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting opens this week.
"It's like finding a whole new reservoir of life on Earth," said Karen Lloyd, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. "We are discovering new types of life all the time. So much of life is within the Earth rather than on top of it." The team combines 1,200 scientists from 52 countries in disciplines ranging from geology and microbiology to chemistry and physics. A year before the conclusion of their 10-year study, they will present an amalgamation of findings to date before the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting opens this week.
The question now is how was this overlooked for so long? This really gives credence to the possibility of life under the surface on Mars or other planetary bodies, panspermia, all of that. Wow. Big, big big.
get out of my sock draw. If this keeps up I'm going to wash the damn things.
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There are billions of micro-organisms in a pot of yogurt. Did you mean billions of species, or billions of tons?
There is a big difference between "Billions of Micro-organisms" which is a few grams and "Billions of tonnes of Micro-organisms" from the summary.
Would be neat if we found the same thing on Mars.
Maybe this is where oil comes from?
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
the diversity of underworld species bears comparison to the Amazon or the Galapagos Islands, but unlike those places the environment is still largely pristine because people have yet to probe most of the subsurface.
As long as there are no exploitable resources it should be fine. But if someone discovers something useful or that can be sold, it won't take long before we humans manage to lay waste to most of it. Sadly that seems to be the way we operate as a species. We've just gotten very efficient at it as we advance.
Ugly bags of mostly water....
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
It has been known for decades. I read about it long ago, with the estimates of biomass in much the same ballpark as these.
Well then, pony up Bill, let's see you wheel out the decades old citations that closely match the discoveries of these scientists.
There are more errors in this summary than there are stars in the universe.
Have gnu, will travel.
This sounds a lot like Thomas Gold's Deep Hot Biosphere theory.
It sounds like you were trying to downplay the significance of these discoveries
Not at all. It is important research. They made many important new discoveries. But they did NOT discover that "there is life down there". We already knew that.
Everything old is new again :)
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She prefers to be called Gia.
1993 https://www.sciencedirect.com/...
1980
https://www.nature.com/article...
Many others. Basically scientists got curious about what possible risks to unknoqn biospheres could exist from burying radioactive waste and started looking, and kept finding bacteria in really absurd places. Plus the petroleum industry always had an interest in the topic because it helps explain certain sources of biomass that may well be producing some sources of carbon fuels that don't quit fit the usual "buried ancient plant matter" theories
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Not sure about that, little Ken Doll. I was smart enough to leave a huge load of sperm in your mom without catching any of her STD's.
So how's that brain rot from the syphilis you were born with coming along?
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Yep. Biding their time and laying low until we wipe ourselves out.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
We must compete with the mass of this life or be overwhelmed. We can make more humans, or eat more pizza and burgers. I have more experience with the second.
Table-ized A.I.
DIdn't the Russians find out about this when digging a super deep hole? I read about that years ago.
Haters gotta hate.
Chris Mesterharm
see, steve bannon was right, there is a deep staph, it surrounds us. it penetrates us. It binds the universe together. Race Bannon and Johnny quest found this a long time ago when they journeyed to the center of the earth and brought back Yoda and Hitler.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Yep. Biding their time and laying low until we wipe ourselves out. ... then our remains subduct and THEY feed on US!
See, told you they were smart. And vastly more patient. Sure beats a bad movie plot where they ooze up through a deep oil rig and try to kill us all, ineffectually.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
âoeDespite extreme heat, no light, minuscule nutrition and intense pressure...â So Amazon are moving their warehouses underground?
No, he didn't. His first post, verbatim:
It wasn't. This has been well known for decades. This new research didn't "discover" subterranean life, they mostly just quantified and categorized it.
The presence of deep bacteria was known, but I seriously doubt there were any good biomass estimates for them, since estimations for above ground biomass were pretty lackluster up until about 15 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold#Origins_of_petroleum
In a 1992 paper "The Deep Hot Biosphere" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,[56] Gold first suggested that microbial life is widespread in the porosity of the crust of the Earth, down to depths of several kilometers,
Now fuck off.
According to your own words then, this has not been "known for decades".
Someone hypothesizing that something sort of like this might be true does not make that thing "known". Only collecting actual evidence can do that. And that is what this study is publishing, a whole lot of, yes, new research. We have been making remarkable advances in scientific tools and this changes the data we can collect. No, this is not stuff "we knew long ago". These observations we could only make recently.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Thomas Gold and Russian researchers before him were looking at this back in the 1950's. He wrote a book The Deep Hot Biosphere. One might suppose that the strident opponents of the theory (and Gold) have died or retired so science can now progress in this area.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.