Thriving Biosphere Found in Rocks Deep Underneath Seafloor

Photo credit: M. McCarthy via University of California, Santa Cruz

There's a reason for leaving "no stone unturned" when it comes to scientific exploration -- there's probably life underneath even the most unlikely rock. Even if that rock is well under the seafloor. Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found evidence for a biological community of living organisms camped out in porous rock deep underneath the seabed. The microbes are "chemoautotrophic," getting their energy from chemicals rather than sunlight or sunlight-dependent organisms. With a whole new-to-us biosphere that fixes carbon in a similar way that grasslands or forests fix carbon, the findings could change what we know about the ocean's carbon cycle,

Article continues: Thriving Biosphere Found in Rocks Deep Underneath Seafloor