CORVALLIS, Ore. - Scientists at Oregon State University have discovered evidence of rock-eating microbes living nearly a mile beneath the ocean floor in conditions which suggest similar life could exist on Mars or other planets. The discovery was announced Friday in the journal Science.
Microbial fossils were found in abundant quantities in miles of core samples taken during various research projects by the Ocean Drilling Program in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, according to Martin R. Fisk, an associate professor of oceanography at OSU and lead author on the study.
Where the basalt was glassy, having quickly been cooled by seawater, the scientists found a series of tracks and trails. "Whenever we looked at those tracks for DNA, we found it," Fisk said.
Fisk said he first became curious about the possibility of life after looking at the swirling tracks and trails that were etched into the basalt. The rocks have the basic elements for life including carbon, phosphorous and nitrogen, and needed only water to complete the formula. Groundwater seeping through the ocean floor could easily provide that, he pointed out.
"Under those conditions, microbes could live beneath any rocky planet," Fisk said. "It would be no problem to have life inside of Mars, or within a moon of Jupiter, or even on a comet containing ice crystals that gets warmed up when the comet passes by the sun."
Fisk said scientists know a lot about the interior of Mars from meteorites that have been blasted off the planet. "They've got everything you need for life," he said, including carbon, phosphorous, small amounts of nitrogen, and minerals that contain water, or evidence of water.
The temperatures required to create life are less of a concern, he pointed out, as scientists find more and more evidence of life in some of Earth's most desolate and extreme conditions - from Antarctic ice to deep ocean vents.
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Contact: Mark Floyd
floydm@ccmail.orst.edu
(541) 737-0788
Oregon State University
13-Aug-1998