Active microbes discovered far beneath seafloor in ancient
ocean sediment
Microbes are living more than 500 feet beneath the seafloor
in 5 million-year-old sediment, according to new findings by researchers at the
University of Delaware and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
Genetic material in mud from the bottom of the ocean —
called the deep biosphere —revealed an ecosystem of active bacteria, fungi and
other microscopic organisms at depths deeper than a skyscraper is high. The
findings were published in Nature on June 12.