{"id":3031,"date":"2025-06-18T04:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/?p=3031"},"modified":"2026-03-31T14:51:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:51:31","slug":"buried-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/buried-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Buried Alive: The Secret Life of Deep Earth Microbes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Buried Alive: The Secret Life of Deep Earth Microbes<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n
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\n\n \n Discover a vast, previously unknown world of microbial life that survives \u2014 and even thrives \u2014 for hundreds of millions of years in some of the planet\u2019s harshest environments.\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n By<\/span>Susan Bell<\/a><\/strong>\n \n June 18, 2025<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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After a grueling descent into the crater of Costa Rica\u2019s Po\u00e1s Volcano, pioneering geobiologist Karen Lloyd<\/a> paused to catch her breath as she took in the dramatic beauty of the landscape, then turned to the local researcher next to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u201d she asked, glancing warily at the sputtering crater of acid at her feet, \u201cwhat\u2019s our exit strategy again if this thing goes off?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s easy,\u201d he laughed. \u201cJust turn around and admire the view. Because it\u2019s going to be the last one you\u2019ll ever see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Fortunately for Lloyd and her colleagues, their research expedition to collect samples of subsurface life from the subduction zone around the volcano passed without incident.<\/p>\n

But just 54 days later, the sputtering burst into a furious torrent of ejected boulders and the spectacular view disappeared, engulfed in a dark, mushrooming cloud of volcanic ash as Po\u00e1s erupted in what was Costa Rica\u2019s most serious volcanic episode in more than 60 years.<\/p>\n

For Lloyd, known for her groundbreaking work in microbial geochemistry, that moment eight years ago was more than a brush with danger \u2014 it was a reminder of the high-stakes environments her field depends upon to gain understanding of the deep workings of our planet.<\/p>\n

Over the past two decades, that understanding has undergone a radical shift. Lloyd, Wrigley Chair in Environmental Studies<\/a> and professor of Earth sciences<\/a>, is part of a global group of scientists behind a major discovery that is transforming how we think about life on Earth. The scientists revealed the existence of a vast, previously hidden world of living biomass inside the planet\u2019s crust. This biosphere consists of active microorganisms, hundreds of millions of years old, that are thriving in extreme environments once thought uninhabitable.<\/p>\n

As Lloyd details in her new book, Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth<\/em>, these subsurface microbes can survive in boiling water, acid \u2014 even bleach. Some can \u201cbreathe\u201d rocks, metals or electrons. Some are hundreds of thousands of years old. All live in ways completely alien to us surface dwellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOvercoming the challenges of sample contamination to find conclusive proof took years of painstaking work, but the evidence is now overwhelming,\u201d Lloyd says. \u201cThese deep-life microbes are real. They\u2019re alive and they have decidedly weird lifestyles \u2014 doing strange, fascinating things we\u2019re only just beginning to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

To hunt them down, Lloyd and her colleagues explore permafrost in the Arctic, hot springs in Iceland, rift basins in the American Southwest, and volcanoes in Costa Rica, New Zealand and the Andes. In these places, tectonic activity squeezes ancient groundwater to the surface \u2014 much as we might wring out a washcloth \u2014 creating natural laboratories for studying Earth\u2019s hidden biosphere.<\/p>\n

Each location offers a different window into Earth\u2019s deep history, where materials are exchanged between the surface and the subsurface world. In New Mexico\u2019s rift basins, the ground stretches apart, pulling up ancient fluids. In Idaho, springs near old Yellowstone hotspots mark how the continent has drifted. Iceland, in contrast, sits atop both a spreading center and<\/em> volcanic hotspot, producing a radically different subsurface chemistry.<\/p>\n