microcosmic
In 2013, researchers first revealed evidence that the water has been cut off from the surface for as long as 2.7 billion years. Now, they’ve taken the next crucial step, showing that the water comes with its own self-sustaining life-support system, like a space capsule that has been out of contact with Earth for eons but is still perfectly livable.
Even more tantalizing, the team reports indirect evidence that the water is inhabited by some form of life that has yet to be identified. The life would be microbial in nature, but potentially separated from life on the surface for so long that it’s practically alien, persisting in the depths of Earth’s crust with neither sunlight nor atmospheric oxygen to rely on.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/ancient-water-from-northern-ontario-mine-may-harbour-alien-life/article32540885/
Even more tantalizing, the team reports indirect evidence that the water is inhabited by some form of life that has yet to be identified. The life would be microbial in nature, but potentially separated from life on the surface for so long that it’s practically alien, persisting in the depths of Earth’s crust with neither sunlight nor atmospheric oxygen to rely on.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/ancient-water-from-northern-ontario-mine-may-harbour-alien-life/article32540885/