Parallel life could exist deep beneath Earth's crust

Research published in the journal Nature reveals that it is more than likely that there is more water beneath the Earth's crust than on top of it and what's even more interesting is that it could contain life. "This represents a quantum change in our understanding of the total volume of Earth's crust that may be habitable," said Sherwood Lollar, a geoscientist at University of Toronto's Department of Earth Sciences.

Lollar lead the research team that mapped the wherabouts of hydrogen-rich water trapped kilometers beneath the earths surface in Canada, South Africa and Scandinavia."Until now, none of the estimates of global hydrogen production sustaining deep microbial populations had included a contribution from the ancient continents. Since Precambrian rocks make up more than 70 per cent of the surface of Earth's crust, Sherwood Lollar likens these terrains to a "sleeping giant," a huge area that has now been discovered to be a source of possible energy for life," she said.

This discovery is as exciting for our neighbouring plannets as it is for earth, Mars has rocks that are billions of years old like the Precambrian crust and they also have the potential to produce hydrogen, which has opened up a lot of interesting prospects in the field of astrobiology."If the ancient rocks of Earth are producing this much hydrogen, it may be that similar processes are taking place on Mars," said Sherwood Lollar.