Researchers have investigated how earthquakes impacted underground life in Yellowstone, where they thrive far from the Sun’s warmth and energy.

In a study published yesterday in the journal PNAS Nexus, a team studied how small earthquakes in 2021 influenced microbes in the rock and water systems beneath the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field. These life forms draw energy not from photosynthesis but from the chemical reactions related to the movement of water through broken rock. The paper’s results could inform how life can exist in unexpected places and carry implications for the search for extraterrestrial life.

A change in chemical menu

“Seismic energy, like that released by earthquakes, can fracture rock and thereby alter subsurface fluid flow paths, release substrates from inclus

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