A new ecosystem has been found inside the Earth

As part of the international Deep Carbon Observatory project, scientists from 52 countries have discovered a colossal ecosystem hidden at multi-kilometer depths.

Its biomass is estimated at 15-23 billion tons, and its volume exceeds 2 billion cubic kilometers.

Most of the inhabitants of this “underground universe” are microbes, single-celled organisms and roundworms-nematodes.

They exist in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure, receiving energy not from the sun but through chemical reactions with minerals or rocks.

Their metabolism is slowed to a crawl: they hardly move, rarely reproduce and renew their cells once a century.

As noted microbiologist from the University of Oregon Rick Colwell, the life of some “zombies” lasts for millennia.

According to him, they seem to have fallen into a centuries-long hibernation, awakening only in earthquakes or shifts in tectonic plates.

It is specified that scientists were able to discover the underground world when drilling the deepest well.

It took about 10 years to dig to the deep inhabitants.