What do you think is the most barren, lifeless spot in the world? Volcanoes, when not in the process of blowing up or leaking lava, are rich with thermophile bacteria. Deserts like the Gobi, Arabian, and Antarctic support large mammals. The most barren, lifeless spot in the world is in fact a spot on the sea floor in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Scientists taking sediment samples from about 3 miles (5 kilometers) below the sea surface found about only 1,000 living cells per centimeter cubed (that's not a lot).The lifeforms laked almost any sort of nutrients due to the lack of marine snow or sunlight. Instead the basic lifeforms lived off of hydrogen atoms which came from radioactive elements and water molecules breaking down.
This barren, blasted dark world is probably the closest we can get to the very first days of life on Earth.
1 comment:
Obviously they haven't seen my wallet :-|
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