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Scientists Discover Ancient Microbial Life 5 Kilometers Below Sea Level

VOA News

   Living microbes, possibly millions of years old, have been discovered
   more than five kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean's surface, in an
   area believed to have been devoid of life.

   In a study published Tuesday, Japanese and American scientists
   described what they found in sediment samples taken from a flat, wide
   area 3.7 kilometers to 5.7 kilometers below the ocean's surface, known
   as an abyssal plain. Because of their depth and the limited organic
   material in the sediment found there, these areas were long believed
   unable to support life.

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