Bacteria well-adapted to high temperatures have been
brought up from oil wells thousands of miles apart. All
indications are that these bacteria are indigenous to the
wells; that is, not introduced by the drilling fluids. What
is most interesting is the fact that these bacteria are all
closely related despite their remoteness from each other.
They not only look and behave alike, but they also share
98.2% of their 16S ribosomal RNA sequences. M. Magot
asks what an anomalist would ask.
"For example, where are these bacteria from?
How did they succeed in colonizing these habitats?
...Are these microorganisms directly descended
from bacteria that were trapped during the formation
of the oil, or accompanied its migration through tens
to hundreds of millions of years? Did they arrive in
the oil field later as a consequence of aquifer activity?
What is their mode of maintenance and development
in their environment?"
(Magot, Michel; "Similar Bacteria in Remote Oil Fields,"
Nature, 379:681, 1996)
Comment. Bacteria have also been extracted from
mineral-charged fluids circulating in drill holes over 12
kilo meters deep and also in deep aquifers. There must
be an unexplored universe of life thriving not only beneath
our feet but also - quite possibly - beneath the forbidding
surface of Mars.
Reference. Examples of life thriving at great
depths in the earth may be found in ESB9 in our catalog:
Anomalies in Geology.
For a description of this book, visit: here.
From Science Frontiers #105, MAY-JUN 1996.