Researchers Find Bacterial Communities Deep Beneath the Atacama https://eos.org/articles/researchers-find-bacterial-communities-deep-beneath-the-atacama

Persistent microbial communities in #hyperarid subsurface habitats of the #Atacama Desert: Insights from intracellular DNA analysis https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/4/pgae123/7646996

"they proposed that the #microbes rely on water generated by the mineralogical change from #gypsum to #anhydrite. This change indeed leaves some amount of water in the environment and this water could be used by the #bacteria."

Hidden #biosphere discovered beneath world's driest hot desert
https://phys.org/news/2024-04-hidden-biosphere-beneath-world-driest.html

Persistent #microbial communities in #hyperarid #subsurface habitats of the #Atacama Desert https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/4/pgae123/7646996

"In the upper 80 cm of playa sediments, microbial communities were dominated by #Firmicutes. Below 200 cm, a different microbial community was discovered, dominated by #Actinobacteria... this community might have colonized the soil 19,000 years ago, before being buried by playa deposits"