Scientists hoping to find life on Mars should look down — way, way down.
A paper co-authored by UWindsor professor Scott Mundle published this month in Scientific Reports, an open-access subsidiary of the journal Nature, suggests seismic activity allows organisms to migrate deep into the Earth’s subsurface through rock fractures. Since seismic activity occurs on other planets and moons, too, life elsewhere in our solar system could be contained in ecosystems deep in the subsurface, the research suggests.
“If life is going to be found on Mars, it will be found in the subsurface,” said Dr. Mundle. Regions with historical seismic activity and surface water are important considerations when selecting landing sites for planetary exploration, he said.
The new paper, New Ecosystems in the Deep Subsurface Follow the Flow of Water Driven by Geological Activity, is borne of research by Belgian biologist Gaetan Borgonie. Borgonie went into gold, platinum, and diamond mines in South Africa and collected samples of water dripping from the walls nearly four kilometres underground.
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Image via University of Windsor.