Ancient ‘Zombie’ Lifeforms Living 5km Beneath Earth’s Surface a “Challenge to Science”

Barely living ‘zombie’ bacteria and other forms of life constitute an immense amount of carbon deep within Earth’s subsurface — 245 to 385 times greater than the carbon mass of all humans on the surface, according to Deep Carbon Observatory scientists nearing the end of a 10-year international collaboration to reveal Earth’s innermost secrets.

Deep beneath our feet, scientists have recently discovered a massive ‘community’ of ‘zombie’ lifeforms, which are unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

In fact, we could almost say they are alien.

Some of these organisms have the ability to live for millions of years and don’t ever bother reproducing. Their sole mission is to survive.

Scientists from the Deep Carbon Observatory, based at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, have come across microorganisms living beneath Earth’s surface that have a total ‘carbon mass’ of 15 to 23 billion tonnes.

Surprisingly, this is hundreds of times the amount of carbon contained in the bodies of all humans on Earth.

The discovery was made after more than ten years of studies. Read the free article.