Ocean Crust Rich with Microbial Life Dec. 14, 2010 Reprinted
with permission from SeaWeb, as published in OceanUpdate,
December 14, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 25. Scientists have found an
unexpectedly abundant amount of bacterial life more than 4,600
feet (1,400 meters) below the seabed, a discovery that has
ramifications for the search for life on Mars and strategies for
adapting to climate change on Earth. Writing in the open-access,
online journal PLoS One, Olivia Mason of Oregon State University
and colleagues point out that although the geology of oceanic
crust has been extensively studied, its biology has not—partly
because digging to such depths poses logistical and financial
challenges and partly because expectations of finding rich
biological life in the crust have been limited. In most areas,
the deepest layer of ocean crust, known as the gabbro layer,
doesn't even begin until the crust is about two-miles
(3,200-meters) thick. But at a site in the Atlantic Ocean near
an undersea mountain, the Atlantis Massi