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About a 20-minute drive north of the industrial town of Timmins, Ontario, the ground gives way to a gaping pit stretching more than 100 meters across. This pit is the most recognizable feature of Kidd Creek Mine, the deepest copper and zinc mine in the world. Below the Earth’s surface, a maze of underground tunnels and shafts pierces 3 kilometers of ancient volcanic rock. Were it not for a huge ventilation system keeping the passages cool, the air temperature at this depth would be 34 °C (93 °F).
It’s here that Barbara Sherwood Lollar, a hydrogeologist at the University of Toronto, journeys into the planet’s crust to hunt for signs of life. “You get into a small truck or vehicle and go down a long, winding roadway that corkscrews down into the Earth,” she tells The Scientist. By the time she and her fellow passengers clamber ...
