Underground Biosphere Found Below Atacama Desert: There’s some new research that found a bunch of tiny living things called microbes living about 13 feet under the super dry Atacama Desert in Chile. This cool discovery tells us about a whole hidden world of bacteria living in the dry soil of the Yungay Valley.
Before, scientists had found tiny life forms like bacteria living as deep as 2.6 feet under the Atacama Desert. But now, they’ve found a whole new bunch of them living even deeper. This hidden community lives from about 6.6 feet to at least 13 feet underground. It’s pretty amazing because they’re really tough and can survive well even though their environment is really tough too.
The main type of bacteria living underground here are called Actinobacteria. They’re a varied group that’s really good at surviving in tough places, like the Arctic and really hot springs. Finding these bacteria so deep in the Atacama Desert shows that life can exist in places that seem really harsh. This gives us helpful clues for looking for life on other planets, especially Mars.
The scientists found Actinobacteria living near the surface, about 0.8 to 2 inches deep. But when they dug deeper, they found a different kind of bacteria called Firmicutes. This shows that these tiny organisms can adapt to really tough conditions, like environments with lots of salt and no oxygen.
Underground Biosphere Found Below Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert is known as the driest and hottest desert on Earth. It’s really tough for living things to survive there, and only a few animals can make it. But even though it’s so dry and harsh, some bacteria have managed to live in the salty, mineral-filled soil and do well there.
To learn about the living things in the desert, the scientists dug really deep, over 4 meters down into the Yungay Valley’s dry lake bed. They used new ways to collect and study the DNA of living things. What they found was a hidden world of life deep under the extremely dry desert soil, and they think it might go down even farther than they could dig.
The fact that the bacteria deep underground rely on gypsum for water is really interesting, especially because Mars has similar features in its geology. There are gypsum deposits on Mars, and this discovery suggests that there could be microbial life there too. It’s a big deal because it adds to the evidence that Mars might be able to support life, and it’s important for scientists who are studying whether Mars could ever be a place where humans could live.