Deep beneath the Earth’s surface, an extraordinary discovery has been made. Microbes – alive and thriving – have been found sealed within a fracture of 2-billion-year-old rock.
This finding pushes the boundaries of our understanding of life’s resilience and longevity.
Lead researcher Yohey Suzuki, an associate professor from the Graduate School of Science at the University of Tokyo, couldn’t hide his excitement.
“We didn’t know if 2-billion-year-old rocks were habitable,” Suzuki explained. “Until now, the oldest geological layer in which living microorganisms had been found was a 100-million-year-old deposit beneath the ocean floor, so this is a very exciting discovery.”
The rock sample housing these ancient microbes was excavated from the Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC) in northeastern South Africa.
Covering an area roughly the size of Ireland, the BIC is known for its rich ore deposits, including about 70% of the world’s mined platinum.
Due to its formation from slowly cooled magma and minimal changes over the millennia, the BIC provided a stable environment for microbial life.
These fractures were sealed off by clay, creating a closed system where the microbes could survive without outside interference. The cells appeared to be living life in slow motion, scarcely evolving over millions of years.
To ensure the microbes were indigenous to the rock and not contaminants, the researchers employed a refined technique involving three types of imaging: infrared spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and fluorescent microscopy.
