#deep biosphere

(15% of earth’s biomass, including 90% of the bacteria.)

Once a planet has life, it will forever have life, nothing natural or artificial can wipe all life out. It takes the complete destruction of the planet (star bloating to engulf it, the planet crashing into another) to wipe life out.

The reason I think this: Earth.

Earth has life that can survive literally anything, all it takes for life to come back is a few germs, some dust, and gusto.

There is life extremely deep in the crust, I learned this from Kurzgesagt, theres like, as much life living in solid rock miles down as there is in the oceans iirc.

The worst extinctions in Earth history killed like, 98% of life, and look where we are now.

If Mars had any life, it is still there, somewhere, life evolves fast when needed.

Our best killers kill 99.999% of germs and viruses, but thats marketing, its like way less.

What does it mean to wait? For most of us, waiting is an active, often impatient state, measured in minutes, hours, or perhaps a few years for a long term goal. But what if waiting could be stretched across geological time? Imagine a form of life that doesn’t just endure for a few seasons, but for millions of years, patiently biding its time in a state of profound slumber, deep within the planet…

[NEWS] Five science links: redwood clones, rhea of Germany, Pescadero Basin, deep biosphere, climate

Motherboard looks at how some ecological activists are cloning the stumps of dead redwoods to produce new trees.

Rheas imported to the north German plains from South America are thriving, possibly even becoming indigenous. Well done! Deutsche Welle reports.

Motherboard reports on the unique oceanic ecologies found in the upside-down lakes of the Pescadero Basin.

The sheer mass of the deep…

In a statement that dubs Earth's deep biosphere a "subterranean Galapagos" waiting to be studied,  Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO)  scientists estimate that the sheer biomass of carbon-based life lurking below our feet utterly dwarfs the amount of life roaming the Earth's surface. With about 17 billion to 25 billion tons of carbon (15 to 23 billion metric tonnes) under the planet's surface, DCO researchers estimate there is nearly 300 to 400 times as much carbon biomass underground (most of it still undiscovered) as there is in all the humans on Earth.