Earth is the common homeland of our humans and . However, our human understanding of life on the earth only stays on the surface and is extremely superficial, far inferior to our understanding of the ocean, atmosphere, and even the universe. Because the deep underground is a place that humans have never been to, it is called the "dark world." The earth's crust is so tightly wrapped, so that we humans can't start exploring the earth's interior-the earth's crust is extremely difficult. Then someone can't help but ask: "Will there be life in the depths of the earth's crust?"
The picture shows the layers of the earth's crust
Explore the depths of the earth's crust: the deadly "dark world", full of all kinds of strange life
In the vast universe, the earth is a unique Different planets, because many lives are bred in this blue planet. Since the birth of human beings on the earth, exploring the earth has always been the goal of human progress. Countless lives can be bred on the surface of the earth, so will life be bred in the depths of the earth, that is, in the crust?
In history, with regard to exploring this issue, the former Soviet Union also formulated a plan to "dig into the earth's core", hoping to dig deep into the earth through some mechanical tools to explore whether there will be life inside, but this plan is halfway through. At that time, it was forced to terminate. The reason is simple. First, there are limited construction facilities for deep digging of the earth's crust, making deep digging more difficult, and the entire project cost a lot of money. The Soviet Union had to stop midway through the implementation of this plan, but the relevant scientific research team has a new understanding of the earth. Because when digging deep underground, Soviet researchers discovered that there are indeed life deep in the earth's crust. These life are just some microorganisms.
The picture shows the Soviet Geocentric Project.
With the development of science and technology, mankind gradually has the ability to explore the "dead and dark world". If we refer to the earth's ecological circle, we can hardly imagine a few kilometers or even tens of thousands of meters deep in the earth. Below, there will be life. The deep underground has been in darkness for a long time, not only without sunlight, but also full of high temperature, high pressure and no oxygen. How do these living entities survive? Scientists have pumped a lot of groundwater from underground at different depths. After researching, they were surprised to find that there is a "dark biosphere" deep in the earth's crust, which contains a variety of strange life, which opened our eyes.
For example, there is a mining area called "Mbonegg" in Africa. The entire mining area has been explored to a depth of 2,800 meters underground. The entire underground environment is high temperature all year round, and even the groundwater temperature averages over 60 degrees Celsius. There has been no sunlight or oxygen for a long time, and the pressure here is extremely high, but scientists have discovered a very interesting life form here, and this life form is gold mining bacteria. What does
1 and depend on for the survival of the peculiar underground life form gold mine?
"Gold Mining Fungus" is a kind of microorganism, a member of the bacteria family. It has been isolated from the world for a long time. It is "old and dead" with any other life on the earth. In other words, this kind of bacteria exists independently of. Unlike human beings who are closely related to food, clothing, housing and transportation, transportation is indispensable for going out, tableware is indispensable for eating, etc., all things of gold mine are realized by self-sufficiency. It can survive independently in extremely harsh living environments, even if the temperature deep underground has reached more than 60 degrees Celsius, without light and oxygen, it does not matter to gold mining bacteria, and it can still survive in harsh environments. So how do gold mining bacteria get energy?
You must know that the essential process of all life on the earth is completed through energy conversion, and there are two basic ways of energy conversion of life on earth, one of which is photosynthesis, such as plants and some algae including some bacteria. Carbon dioxide is converted into carbohydrates and finally oxygen is released. This energy conversion process is chemical energy, and another way of energy conversion is organic chemical energy conversion. These are the fundamentals for the survival of earth creatures. The gold mine bacteria are neither photosynthesis nor the use of organic chemical energy. They are converted through third-party energy. In other words, gold-mining bacteria mainly use the sulfur and water produced by decomposing the ore by radiation, and directly absorb the sulfate and hydrogen peroxide produced by the sulfur and water. During the absorption process, it slowly produces energy for survival. Gold mining bacteria use the energy generated by the interaction of these small molecules to synthesize organic matter. Related scientists believe that this microorganism can survive on Mars.
The picture shows the gold ore bacteria
2. Can gold ore bacteria survive long-term if they are placed on the surface of the earth?
Gold mining bacteria cannot survive in a space full of sunlight and oxygen. Because we mentioned earlier that the gold-mining fungus is an alternative organism, its survival is completely isolated from the world. Scientists call this kind of organisms "inorganic autotrophic" organisms. This is like fish cannot live without water. We humans need to breathe continuously and absorb oxygen to survive and sustain our lives in the earth. The fish in the water can survive by absorbing the dissolved oxygen in the water. They also need breathing and metabolism. If we have to keep the fish on land, the fish that leave the water will die within a few minutes, because water resources are the basic condition for fish to survive. The same reason is that for gold mining bacteria, they The fundamental condition for survival is "isolation" in the deep underground.
How many kinds of creatures exist deep in the earth's crust?
If “inorganic autotrophic” biological gold-mining bacteria can survive long-term deep in the earth's crust, there must be other microorganisms. According to the composition of carbon-based organisms, without sunlight and oxygen, microorganisms can live on minerals in the earth's crust for a long time, such as sulfur dioxide, etc. Studies have shown that every additional kilometer of the earth's depth, the temperature will rise by 20-30 degrees Celsius. The underground microorganisms can use the radioactive energy generated by high temperature to obtain more energy. We all know that most of the earth’s surface is about 70% of the ocean, and the average depth is about 4000 meters, while the depth of the terrestrial biosphere is only within 100 meters. Based on this estimate, there are microorganisms above 5000 meters underground. In the environment, the total weight of underground microorganisms accounts for approximately 24 billion tons. In other words, this is equivalent to the total mass of human beings on the planet nearly 400 million tons. It can be seen that the biosphere in the dead, dark world in the earth's crust is very large, beyond our human imagination.
What is the limit heat-resistant temperature of creatures living in the dead, dark world?
The earth's depth continues to increase, and the temperature will continue to rise. Some people can't help but ask: "Aren't the underground microorganisms afraid of high temperatures?" In fact, it is not. Among the currently known organisms, the most heat-resistant organisms can reach nearly 121 degrees Celsius. It survives normally in the temperature of, and scientists call this organism "strain 121". The
strain 121 is called "the king of the earth's high temperature tolerance". This strain has the fastest growth rate and reproduction speed at a high temperature of 100 degrees Celsius. This kind of bacteria has super viability, even if human beings boil it with 100 degrees Celsius hot water, it can not be inactivated, so this kind of bacteria is also called super bacteria. Super bacteria are very scary. For example, although human beings in modern society have entered the "age of antibiotics", in the long-term misuse of antibiotics, some super bacteria will produce antibodies, and they are not resistant to (there is no cure). Groundwater and soil invade the bodies of animals and humans and spread faster and faster, with disastrous consequences.
pictured as "strain 121"
Scientists call strain 121 "extreme organisms". This extremophile can multiply and survive in extreme environments. For example, among the many extremophiles, there are strains 121 that can withstand high temperatures, and the radiation-tolerant Deinococcus can withstand the strongest radiation, as well as acid-tolerant microorganisms, which are very resistant to acid.
We humans will inevitably get sick from eating whole grains, so are extremophiles always powerful? Haven't they been damaged? In fact, it has to be said that these extremophiles have super martial arts, like eight immortals crossing the sea, each showing their magical powers. They have their own golden bells. No matter how bad the living environment is, they can survive tenaciously, even if their genes are damaged. They will "specialize in surgery", and each will self-heal and repair genes. In short, there are various extremophiles in the earth's crust, and their number and reproduction speed will change as the living environment changes. At present, as the depth of the Earth's interior increases, the less we humans understand. Due to the limitations of technology, we cannot currently explore the Earth's interior on a large scale to explore more microorganisms.
Is there another civilization inside the earth? Have higher life evolved?
In many science fiction films, we have seen the existence of lizardmen, The half-human half-beast lizardman is two meters high, with red eyes and green scales all over the body, which seems to be the same as us humans, and can walk upright. And they often appear underground, so will there be higher life species like lizard people deep in the earth? The mystery of the lizardman is one of the four unsolved mysteries of the world today. According to the current research and exploration by scientists, the necessary conditions for the survival of higher life are sufficient sunlight, water and oxygen. The "dead and dark world" deep in the earth's crust has no light. It has been in the dark for a long time, and the pressure is very high, and there is no oxygen. Under such extremely harsh living conditions, it is almost impossible to evolve higher life, and there will be no other civilization. .
Generally speaking, there are all kinds of microbes in the earth's crust. According to the current existing science and technology, the maximum depth that humans can find microbes is 5000 meters underground. This is one of the largest microbial groups on the earth. We can't estimate the impact. But these huge microbial communities do not need to be exposed on the surface, because for them, long-term survival in the crust of the dead dark world is the best choice. The world inside the earth is full of many mysteries. The life buried in the earth's crust is far away from us. It is believed that in the near future, as technology becomes more advanced, we will find more unknown species of life on the earth's crust.
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