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“Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life,” by Ferris Jabr
If you can read this New York Times article, Deep-Dwelling Microbes That Sculpt Our Planet, about life existing underneath the Earth's surface, it is well worth reading. It packs a good number of facts about the interaction of microbes and the rocky Earth surface.
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All the plant roots surface area is 35 times greater than the entire surface of our planet. Combined microbes' surface areas would be around 200 Earth surface areas. A layer of fertile soil three feet thick spread across the continents would have a combined surface area more than 100,000 times that of the bare planet.
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There is a very good possibility that mass wise there is much more life below the surface than there above the surface. Large, complex, isolated ecosystems are now found a couple of miles underground.
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Scientists were initially skeptical about discoveries of life underground, thinking that it was from surface contamination. But as time went on, the methods improved and discoveries of life not found on the surface made it evident that there was unique life under the surface. Thousands upon thousands of new species were discovered. In some cases the density of life is only 1 microbe per centimeter. Some are ancient and slow, reproducing infrequently and possibly living for millions of years.
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Over time, the continuous crumbling, melting and resolidifying of the planet’s early crust shifted and concentrated uncommon elements creating thousands of minerals that weren't present when the earth first formed. These were further modified by the . continued mixing of dirt, clay, and water with the subducted rock which changed the composition of the rock. Basalt was recycled into granite, a lighter weight rock which builds up the continents.
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Microbes can convert very hard minerals into softer minerals and help process the erosion and wearing down of rocks and minerals by creating substances such as acids that dissolve limestone caverns. Bacteria can also process rocks and minerals to get energy and create deposits of pure metal flakes.
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Because of the way the Earth formed its minerals, Robert Hazen, a mineralogist and astrobiologist at Carnegie Science, and the statistician Grethe Hystad have calculated that the chance of two planets having an identical set of mineral species is one in 10³²².
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Isolated water deposits found deep underground that are up to a billion years old contain microbes that could be hundreds of millions of years old. It's entirely possible that life could have just as easily started in deep geothermal cracks and crevices as it could started in tidal pools up on the surface.
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The surface area of life just below the surface is far greater than if it was just rock. All this life works in unison to provide sustainability for millions and millions of species. If something is knocked out of balance millions of species can eventually disappear but life continues creating new forms to fill the empty spaces.
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The author finishes by saying that there is a lot more going on behind the sustainability of life, which has been running on Earth for almost 4 billion years. And that we aren't as significant as we think we are towards our own sustainability so we should be more mindful of what we are doing.
Scientists and researchers mentioned in the article
Kim Cunningham, geomicrobiologist, geologist
Penelope Boston, geomicrobiologist
Barbara Sherwood Lollar, geologist
Thomas Gold, astrophysicist
Magdalena Osburn, geomicrobiology.
Tullis Onstott, geosciences
Caitlin Casar, a geobiologist
Alexis Templeton, geomicrobiologist
Robert Hazen, mineralogist and astrobiologist
Dennis Höning, geophysicists
Tilman Spohn, geophysicists
James Lovelock, scientist
Lynn Margulis, biologist
If you can read this New York Times article, Deep-Dwelling Microbes That Sculpt Our Planet, about life existing underneath the Earth's surface, it is well worth reading. It packs a good number of facts about the interaction of microbes and the rocky Earth surface.
.
All the plant roots surface area is 35 times greater than the entire surface of our planet. Combined microbes' surface areas would be around 200 Earth surface areas. A layer of fertile soil three feet thick spread across the continents would have a combined surface area more than 100,000 times that of the bare planet.
.
There is a very good possibility that mass wise there is much more life below the surface than there above the surface. Large, complex, isolated ecosystems are now found a couple of miles underground.
.
Scientists were initially skeptical about discoveries of life underground, thinking that it was from surface contamination. But as time went on, the methods improved and discoveries of life not found on the surface made it evident that there was unique life under the surface. Thousands upon thousands of new species were discovered. In some cases the density of life is only 1 microbe per centimeter. Some are ancient and slow, reproducing infrequently and possibly living for millions of years.
.
Over time, the continuous crumbling, melting and resolidifying of the planet’s early crust shifted and concentrated uncommon elements creating thousands of minerals that weren't present when the earth first formed. These were further modified by the . continued mixing of dirt, clay, and water with the subducted rock which changed the composition of the rock. Basalt was recycled into granite, a lighter weight rock which builds up the continents.
.
Microbes can convert very hard minerals into softer minerals and help process the erosion and wearing down of rocks and minerals by creating substances such as acids that dissolve limestone caverns. Bacteria can also process rocks and minerals to get energy and create deposits of pure metal flakes.
.
Because of the way the Earth formed its minerals, Robert Hazen, a mineralogist and astrobiologist at Carnegie Science, and the statistician Grethe Hystad have calculated that the chance of two planets having an identical set of mineral species is one in 10³²².
.
Isolated water deposits found deep underground that are up to a billion years old contain microbes that could be hundreds of millions of years old. It's entirely possible that life could have just as easily started in deep geothermal cracks and crevices as it could started in tidal pools up on the surface.
.
The surface area of life just below the surface is far greater than if it was just rock. All this life works in unison to provide sustainability for millions and millions of species. If something is knocked out of balance millions of species can eventually disappear but life continues creating new forms to fill the empty spaces.
.
The author finishes by saying that there is a lot more going on behind the sustainability of life, which has been running on Earth for almost 4 billion years. And that we aren't as significant as we think we are towards our own sustainability so we should be more mindful of what we are doing.
Scientists and researchers mentioned in the article
Kim Cunningham, geomicrobiologist, geologist
Penelope Boston, geomicrobiologist
Barbara Sherwood Lollar, geologist
Thomas Gold, astrophysicist
Magdalena Osburn, geomicrobiology.
Tullis Onstott, geosciences
Caitlin Casar, a geobiologist
Alexis Templeton, geomicrobiologist
Robert Hazen, mineralogist and astrobiologist
Dennis Höning, geophysicists
Tilman Spohn, geophysicists
James Lovelock, scientist
Lynn Margulis, biologist
