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2-bn-year-old rock harbors living microbes, rewrites life's history (interestingengineering.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Dadifer@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] weariedfae@lemmy.world 56 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This is interesting and important but fun fact, maybe not the first case of 2 billion+ yr old microbes. There were microbial organisms found in a mine in Minnesota coming from 2.6 billion year old rock and they suspected they were coming from water trapped when the rock, banded iron formation, formed in an ancient ocean. IIRC there were two bacteria - one that eats sulfur and excretes iron, and one that eats iron and excretes sulfur.

Soudan Mine in northern Minnesota. Great tour.

https://www.twincities.com/2008/12/22/soudan-mine-studied-for-bacterial-life/

[-] rickyrigatoni@lemm.ee 43 points 2 months ago

imagine two societies spending billions of years in the dark depths eating the others poop

nature is beautiful

[-] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

It’s as though the yin and yang are just a black turd and a white turd clumped together…. Beautiful.

[-] londos@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

))<>((

[-] HulkSmashBurgers@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

The dirty ourobouros.

[-] LostXOR@fedia.io 8 points 2 months ago

I went there a while back, and I'll second the great tour. It's awesome that they actually maintain the elevator and let people go down. It's a pretty cool experience, though not for the claustrophobic. Never knew about the microbes, that's really interesting!

[-] booly@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

one that eats sulfur and excretes iron, and one that eats iron and excretes sulfur

Thermodynamically, how could these two cycles sustain metabolism? Were there other processes/species in the mix to introduce chemical compounds that had more energy contained within?

[-] weariedfae@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I don't recall as it was mentioned by someone in passing (and stuck with me) but I can tell you that the rocks they were in are exceptionally iron rich, which is why the mine was there.