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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Can life exist beyond the deepest point in the ocean?
« on: 11/11/2020 08:52:15 »Quote from: OP
Can life exist beyond the deepest point in the ocean?Over the past few years, scientists have been astonished by the number of microorganisms living in deep rocks - even in deep gold mines.
- Presumably this would include rocks under the Mariana trench.
- This is a place where ocean floor plunges beneath the Mariana tectonic plate, potentially taking living microbes deep under the ocean floor.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Trench
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The appearance of the Mariana Trench is that of a wound that is beginning to close up, this unrelated similarity provoked the initial idea that maybe at one point it was open and the ocean expanded significantlyThe Mariana trench is part of the Pacific "ring of fire", characterized by subducting ocean floor, volcanoes and earthquakes.
I understand from this week's Naked Scientists podcast that the Pacific Ocean has been showing this behavior since the breakup of Pangaea, which is put at around 300 million years ago.
If you want to see ocean floor that is spreading and opening up, look at the mid-ocean ridge in the Atlantic ocean. At it's northern end is Iceland, which is effectively splitting in half due to sea-floor spreading.
Listen: https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/ground-moving-beneath-our-feet
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_Ridge
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