I’ve read several stories recently about the vast amounts of water that lie beneath the Earth’s surface. It is believed, by some, that there may be as much water beneath the surface of the Earth as there is on the surface.
While this is interesting on its own, my question is: Is there life down there? We have found life in some of the most extreme environments on Earth. There is life in extreme hot environments, in volcanic vents in the ocean. There is life in extreme cold, beneath the arctic and antarctic ice, there is life in the deepest parts of the oceans we have visited despite the incredible water pressure. Scientists have speculated about the possibility of life on Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa and even on rogue planets, so far from a sun that they do not belong to any solar system.
So what about the vast amounts of water beneath the Earth? It would be dark, it would generally be very cold but in some locations it would be incredibly hot. None of those conditions though seem to exclude the possibility of life in other places.
It would be difficult to investigate but can it really be harder than trying to visit Europa? Who knows what clues about the evolution of life on Earth could be lying down there?