Extreme extremophiles: sea floor cores find their food (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, February 28, 2021, 20:01 (1365 days ago) @ David Turell

It is from radioactive production of hydrogen and oxidents:

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-microbes-deep-beneath-seafloor-survive.html

"A team of researchers from the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography and their collaborators have revealed that the abundant microbes living in ancient sediment below the seafloor are sustained primarily by chemicals created by the natural irradiation of water molecules.

"The team discovered that the creation of these chemicals is amplified significantly by minerals in marine sediment. In contrast to the conventional view that life in sediment is fueled by products of photosynthesis, an ecosystem fueled by irradiation of water begins just meters below the seafloor in much of the open ocean. This radiation-fueled world is one of Earth's volumetrically largest ecosystems.

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"The process driving the research team's findings is radiolysis of water—the splitting of water molecules into hydrogen and oxidants as a result of being exposed to naturally occurring radiation. Steven D'Hondt, URI professor of oceanography and a co-author of the study, said the resulting molecules become the primary source of food and energy for the microbes living in the sediment.

"'The marine sediment actually amplifies the production of these usable chemicals," he said. "If you have the same amount of irradiation in pure water and in wet sediment, you get a lot more hydrogen from wet sediment. The sediment makes the production of hydrogen much more effective."

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"Sauvage irradiated vials of wet sediment from various locations in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, collected by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program and by U.S. research vessels. She compared the production of hydrogen to similarly irradiated vials of seawater and distilled water. The sediment amplified the results by as much as a factor of 30."

Comment: the first point is to note that these organisms survive easily in the most extreme and unusual way. In my view God made them that way. And it is purposeful. Life/organisms will always survive because they are built to survive by God. The second aspect is origin of life theories. Since the Earth was not that hospitable at life's origin, whatever came first had to possess these same abilities for survival. The great oxygenation event occurred much later and was a much easier way to create energy as we measure it in calories of heat. Of course antioxidants had to be added to control the oxygenation process, all part of good design. My view is always opposite Darwin. He emphasized survival to get rid of God. In my view God provides survival. We are diametrically opposite. There is no middle ground.