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Ancient Surprise

While conducting a study on hydrogen generation in mantle rocks, WHOI associate scientist, Frieder Klein and his colleagues discovered the remains of fossilized microorganisms mummified in hydrothermal deposits. The microbes appear to have been thriving beneath the rocky seafloor when the supercontinent Pangaea broke apart, and the Atlantic ocean opened, more than 100 million years ago. The primitive organisms drew energy from seawater mixed with hot hydrothermal fluids enriched in hydrogen. Studying the environmental conditions of this habitat may provide important clues to our understanding of what represents possibly the most primitive and ancient ecosystem on Earth.(Illustration by Jack Cook Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Ron Blakey (Colorado Plateau Geosystems)