Heat-loving, oil-eating bacteria are seeping out of the seafloor

James Dinneen is a writer.

There are heat-loving, petroleum-eatingbacteria that live thousands of metres beneath the seafloor. It is possible that they will come back to life in other distant oil reserves.

The majority of the microbes live underground in hot rocks. The deep biosphere is the largest habitat on the planet, yet little is known about the ecology of all that live there. He says that you can't put a radio collar on a microbe and follow it around.

A combination of acoustic surveys and genetic analysis was used by the group.

A section of the continental shelf south-west of Nova Scotia was identified by researchers using an autonomously-operated submarine to detect oil and gas. The mud was taken from 14 sites by lowering a tube from their research ship.

When exposed to cold, thermophiles can become active. The samples were heated in the lab to a temperature of 80C. Most of the stuff is killed by that. The spores wake up and have a lot of fun. For thousands and possibly millions of years, some spores can be viable.

The researchers were able to decipher parts of the revivedbacteria's genes. There were different types of microbes in samples with and without oil. They looked at drilling samples from around the world and found the same type of microbes as those found in abundance thousands of metres underground.

Juan Hfer, a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaso in Chile, said that the finding is very beautiful proof that thebacteria had been carried to the seafloor from deep in the earth.

The journey doesn't stop there. Most of thebacteria on the seafloor end up nearby, but some travel thousands of kilometres away.

Over millions of years, the spores would be buried in the sand and then sink to the bottom. If they were able to land on a deposit of oil, the dormant spores could come back to life. They are the most resilient life forms.

The dispersal loop could help explain why different types ofbacteria share the same genes in different places. The genes from one reserve to the other could be exchanged.

The journal is titled Science Advances.