Researchers search for life in the earth’s crust, study the facts

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Life in the deep sea has been a real interest and curiosity for people. Although it may be an inaccessible environment, the deep sea is home to a variety of amazing life forms.

For decades, scientists have researched the deep sea. One of the most interesting discoveries is the deep sea hydrothermal vents, an area of ​​hot, mineral-rich seawater in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Although extreme temperatures and pressures, toxic minerals, and lack of sunlight characterize cool deep sea ecosystems, the species that live there are unique and highly evolved. Scientists discovered many new species there.

Recently, scientists have revealed an even deeper secret, which is that life exists not only around water vents, but also below it, that is in the caves of the earth’s crust.

“Beneath the seafloor, beneath hydrothermal vents spewing hot water, animal communities thrive,” says the study published in Nature Communications.

According to one of the research team, Sabine Gollner from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Marine Research, they decided to do other tests first. However, they found something unexpected in a cavity in the earth’s crust.

The research team reported the discovery of giant tube worms (Riftia Pachyptila), snails, and other marine worms that live in caves under the seabed.

These caves are formed by layers of cooling lava, are about 10 cm high and are located about 2,500 meters below sea level.

“We knew immediately that we had made an important discovery,” Gollner said.

The discovery suggests that tubeworm larvae and other animals could be carried by water eddies from hydrothermal vents into the caves where they settled and grew.

Although the vent itself can be very hot, the environment around it is not that terrible. Many creatures live near vents with a temperature of around 20 degrees Celsius.

However, without light coming in the animals that live there have developed the amazing ability to make energy in other ways.

For this study, scientists could only see the first layer below the sea floor, but with several layers of lava cavity below the surface it is likely that animals live further below the sea.

“Bigger creatures may not be found much deeper, but we really don’t know,” said hydrologist Andrew Fisher at the University of California.

“Smaller, particularly mobile creatures can go much deeper as long as they have a food source. ” he added.

(fab/fab)