Biological activity found 1,000 feet below surface.

• Position: Oceanography

An abundance of microbial life has been discovered deep beneath the ocean floor in ancient basalt that forms part of the Earth's crust, in research that continues to expand the realm of seemingly hostile or remote environments in which living organisms can apparently thrive. Scientists from Oregon State University, Corvallis, and several other institutions conducted the research off the coast of Oregon near a seafloor spreading center on the Juan de Fuca Ridge.

In 3,500,000-year-old crust almost 1,000 feet beneath the bottom of the ocean, they found moderately hot water moving through the heavily fractured basalt. The water was depleted in sulfate and greatly enriched with ammonium, suggesting biological activity in a high-pressure, undersea location far from the types of carbon or energy sources upon which most life on Earth is based. It was one of the most-precise biological samples ever taken from deep under the ocean floor, the scientists indicate.

"This is one of the best views we've ever had of this difficult-to-reach location in the Earth's crust and the life forms that live in it," marvels research associate Michael Rappe. "Until now, we knew practically nothing about the biology of areas such as this, but we found about the same amount of bacteria in the water as you might find in surrounding seawater in the ocean. It was abundant."

According to Steve Giovannoni, professor of microbiology, the work represented a highly complicated "plumbing job." The researchers took advantage of an existing hole and pipe casing that had been drilled previously in that area by the Ocean Drilling...