Info Request: Subterranean Life

[Vexer]

I've read that there's two or three times the 'surface' biomass of Earth, living as micro-organisms, deep underground. Kilometer's deep, by some accounts.

 

Most life is a mile deep?

 

How true is this?

 

(I'm not asking for web-links. I'm asking for people who know what they are talking about).

[Sayonara]

This is something that I too have heard about but never really looked into in any great depth (boom boom). I had a quick look on google, and this came up:

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc97/3_29_97/bob1.htm

 

It's not exactly academically brilliant but it was certainly interesting.

[Vexer]

"The desert is an ocean with it's life underground, and a perfect disguise above."

[Dr. Dalek]

I read something about subterranean microorganisms that live near the mantle and produce chemicals which we find inside the Earths crust. I only saw it in passing; but I remember it was some theory related to the existence of Oil in the Earths crust.

 

can anyone give me more information about this?

[Skye]

Generally called subsurface lithoautotrophic microbial ecosystems (SLME or SLiME). They are usually measured indirectly, by molecular or genetic byproducts, which doesn't give a precise measure of the biomass. Plus the only research sites are mines, which can obviously suffer from contamination. As such the biomass estimates should be taken with a grain of (ba)salt.

 

Zing!

[Vexer]

Dr. Dalek, I'd like to know if oil is non (ex) organic too.