'Barren' seafloor teeming with microbial life

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Scientists have found that rocks beneath the seafloor are teeming with microbial life. Credit: Nicolle Rager-FullerNational Science Foundation
Scientists have found that rocks beneath the seafloor are teeming with microbial life. Credit: Nicolle Rager-Fuller/National Science Foundation

Once considered a barren plain with the odd hydrothermal vent, the seafloor appears to be teeming with microbial life, according to a paper being published May 29 in Nature. “A 60,000 kilometer seam of basalt is exposed along the mid-ocean ridge spreading system, representing potentially the largest surface area for microbes to colonize on Earth,” said USC geomicrobiologist Katrina Edwards, the study’s corresponding author.


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