Science & Technology

Life found inside blue volcanic goop from the bottom of the sea

By T.K. Randall
November 10, 2025 ·  1 comment

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Life shows up in the most unexpected of places, as evidenced yet again recently when researchers retrieved sediment samples from beneath the floor of the Pacific Ocean some 9,833 feet below sea level.

The sediment itself is peculiar to say the least. Exhibiting a bright blue color, this bizarre volcanic goop has pH levels so high that it would cause burns if you happened to touch it with bare skin.

Despite this, however, scientists have now confirmed that it actually contains living organisms.

The findings could help yield new clues as to how life arose on Earth billions of years ago."It is simply exciting to obtain insights into such a microbial habitat because we suspect that primordial life could have originated at precisely such sites," said organic geochemist Florence Schubotz.

"What is fascinating about these findings is that life under these extreme conditions, such as high pH and low organic carbon concentrations, is even possible."

Incredibly, life beneath the ocean floor makes up 15% of the Earth's entire biomass, despite the fact that we know hardly anything about it at all.

It's possible that studying it more closely can tell us, not just about life on our own planet, but about the ways in which organisms might arise on other worlds as well.

Source: Science Alert | Comments (1)

Tags: Pacific