ABOVE: University of Toronto researchers collect fracture water from Kidd Creek Mine in Ontario.
STABLE ISOTOPE LAB, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
Researchers have uncovered the first direct evidence of resident microbes in Kidd Creek Mine, a 3-kilometer-deep copper and zinc mine in Ontario. The findings, published last month (July 18) in Geomicrobiology Journal, confirm previous work indicating that ancient, sulfate-rich water in the region could support what researchers call “deep microbial life,” and add to growing evidence that there’s a vast biosphere thriving in the Earth’s crust that has little or no interaction with the surface.
“This paper is groundbreaking, so to speak,” says John Spear, a microbial ecologist at the Colorado School of Mines who was not involved in the work. “They were able to get an idea of the amount of native microbial biomass . . . and they were able to confirm that the waters that the microbes are ...