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+--- Thread: Article ‘Intraterrestrials’ in Earth’s deep subsurface defy life as we know it (/thread-18461.html)
‘Intraterrestrials’ in Earth’s deep subsurface defy life as we know it - C C - Jul 27, 2025
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2025/07/25/intraterrestrials-in-earths-deep-subsurface-defy-life-as-we-know-it/
EXCERPTS: In her new book, “Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth,” Karen G. Lloyd, a microbial biogeochemist at the University of Southern California, deftly leads us through her years-long global quest to understand the inner workings of these subsurface microbes.
[...] As Lloyd repeatedly makes clear, they seem to thrive on chemicals produced by rocks under the influence of great heat and pressure. Intraterrestrials use these chemicals to gain energy and build their bodies, just like plants do using sunlight at the surface, she notes.
How is the research community advancing this relatively new field of intraterrestrial research? Arguably, the most ambitious remains Japan’s ship Chikyu which was designed to drill through Earth’s crust and into our mantle.
If life is found in Earth’s mantle, that would likely change astrobiology in untold ways. Because who could argue that any given planet, no matter how seemingly inhospitable, couldn't harbor some sort of life? That goes for planets within our own solar system, including subterranean Mars, maybe even subterranean Venus, which to date, has been extraordinarily difficult to explore.
One of the oddest species is a radiation-loving bacterium that holds the record for the deepest life yet found on Earth. It was found thriving 2.8 km deep below the surface in a South African gold mine. Dubbed Desulforudis audaxviator, it apparently eats the reaction products of pure radiation and water.
Some intraterrestrials almost appear to be in stasis, but yet are not.
The fact that living cells likely exist in a nongrowth state for very long timescales raises two important questions, Lloyd writes. Are these microbes evolutionarily adapted to hang out in this undead, dormant state for thousands or millions of years, Lloyd wonders, or do they just persist because cells don’t need any special adaptations to stay alive for so long? (MORE - missing details)
RE: ‘Intraterrestrials’ in Earth’s deep subsurface defy life as we know it - confused2 - Jul 29, 2025
It would be fun to find something down there that isn't/hasn't obviously descended from a lifeform on the surface.
RE: ‘Intraterrestrials’ in Earth’s deep subsurface defy life as we know it - Zinjanthropos - Jul 29, 2025
(Jul 29, 2025 12:11 PM)confused2 Wrote: It would be fun to find something down there that isn't/hasn't obviously descended from a lifeform on the surface.
A new place for a common ancestor?
Just thinking. These life forms would need water.
The deepest confirmed find of water in Earth's crust is located approximately 700 kilometers (435 miles) beneath the surface, within the Earth's mantle. This water is not in a liquid form like the oceans, but rather trapped within a blue mineral called ringwoodite. This reservoir of water is estimated to be three times the volume of all the Earth's surface oceans combined.