A deep, hot biosphere exists beneath the Earth's crust containing microbial life
Extensive scientific literature confirms the existence of a vast deep biosphere within the Earth's crust, where diverse microbial communities thrive under extreme conditions supported by chemical energy sources.
All retrieved papers uniformly support the concept of a deep biosphere within the Earth's crust containing microbial life, ranging from foundational theoretical work to recent empirical studies of marine and continental crusts.
B. Orcutt, D. LaRowe, J. Biddle, Frederick Colwell, B. Glazer, B. Reese, J. Kirkpatrick, Laura L. Lapham, H. Mills, J. Sylvan, S. Wankel, C. G. Wheat. Microbial activity in the marine deep biosphere: progress and prospects. 2013. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00189
Paper 0 discusses the extensive marine deep biosphere consisting of microbial habitats within sediments and the upper basaltic crust.
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H. Drake, N. Roberts, M. Reinhardt, M. Whitehouse, M. Ivarsson, A. Karlsson, E. Kooijman, M. Kielman-Schmitt. Biosignatures of ancient microbial life are present across the igneous crust of the Fennoscandian shield. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00170-2
Paper 1 presents isotopic and molecular signatures demonstrating that Earth's crust hosts microbial life up to several kilometers in depth.
M. Bomberg, L. Ahonen. Editorial: Geomicrobes: Life in Terrestrial Deep Subsurface. 2017. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00103
Paper 2 highlights the deep terrestrial subsurface as an active biosphere housing microbial communities in extreme conditions.
Sean McMahon, Magnus Ivarsson. A New Frontier for Palaeobiology: Earth's Vast Deep Biosphere.. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.201900052
Paper 3 reviews the global deep biosphere hosted by rocks and sediments beneath land and sea, containing massive amounts of biomass.
T Gold. The deep, hot biosphere.. 1992. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.89.13.6045
Paper 4 originally and broadly establishes the concept of a deep, hot biosphere independent of surface energy sources.
Katrina J Edwards, C Geoffrey Wheat, Jason B Sylvan. Under the sea: microbial life in volcanic oceanic crust.. 2011. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2647
Paper 5 explores microbial life harbored in igneous oceanic crust as part of the deep-subsurface biosphere.
Everett C Salas, Rohit Bhartia, Louise Anderson, William F Hug, Ray D Reid, Gerardo Iturrino, Katrina J Edwards. In situ Detection of Microbial Life in the Deep Biosphere in Igneous Ocean Crust.. 2015. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.01260
Paper 6 detects active microbial life and cell densities in deep igneous ocean crust boreholes.
Rose M Jones, Jacqueline M Goordial, Beth N Orcutt. Low Energy Subsurface Environments as Extraterrestrial Analogs.. 2018. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.01605
Paper 7 examines Earth's low-energy subsurface environments, including continental and oceanic crust, as habitats for chemotrophic life.
Shu Ying Wee, Virginia P Edgcomb, David Beaudoin, Shari Yvon-Lewis, Jason B Sylvan. Microbial Abundance and Diversity in Subsurface Lower Oceanic Crust at Atlantis Bank, Southwest Indian Ridge.. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01519-21
Paper 8 quantifies prokaryotic cells and analyzes microbial communities in lower oceanic crust samples.
Min Song, Oliver Warr, Jon Telling, Barbara Sherwood Lollar. Hydrogeological controls on microbial activity and habitability in the Precambrian continental crust.. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.12592
Paper 9 investigates deep Precambrian continental crust groundwater fracture networks inhabited by microbial communities.
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