Deepest Undersea Drilling Reveals Abyssal Rocks That Light Up Life on Earth

The scientific expedition used a ship equipped with ocean drilling equipment and was able to extract the deepest rock samples ever reached by experts from its mantle. land.

The samples come from a depth of 1,268 metres below the Atlantic seabed, and provide evidence of the largest layer on our planet.

This cylindrical core sample, according to the researchers, provides information about the composition of the upper mantle and the chemical processes that occur when this rock interacts with seawater over a range of temperatures. Such processes, they said, may have supported the arrival of life on Earth billions of years ago.

Geology

The mantle, which makes up more than 80% of the planet’s volume, is a layer of silicate rocks that lies between the Earth’s outer crust and the Earth’s extremely hot core. Mantle rocks are generally accessible only when exposed to seafloor locations scattered between the slowly moving continental-sized plates that make up the planet’s surface.

One such place is the Atlantis Ridge, an underwater mountain where mantle rocks are exposed on the seafloor. It is located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, west of the massive Mid-Atlantic Ridge that forms the boundary between the North American Plate and the Eurasian and African Plates.

“Each time a piece of mantle comes to the surface from the drilling, the microbiology team collects samples to culture bacteria to study the conditions of life in this deep subterranean marine ecosystem. Our ultimate goal is to improve our understanding of the origin of life and determine the possibilities of life beyond Earth.” to publish Their findings are published in the journal Science.

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