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Origins of life

Buried beginnings

Nature volume 395, pages 329–330 (1998)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 28 January 1999

Did life begin on Earth near the surface, where the abundant free energy of sunlight could be directly harvested? Or were there instead crucial advantages to be had at subsurface hydrothermal systems? The paper by Brandes et al. on page 365 of this issue1 hints that contributions from both environments might have been required. It increases our appreciation of the opportunities for life offered by crustal and oceanic hydrothermal systems, and raises the possibility that they affected the surface climate.

The possibility that terrestrial life had a subsurface origin will shape the exploration of the Solar System in the next few decades. The science of exobiology has been reborn largely by the discovery of Earth's ‘deep, hot biosphere’2 — the microbial communities that live beneath the oceans and within the crust — and because of evidence that subsurface liquid water may exist today on Mars and Europa and possibly other bodies3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SETI Institute, 2035 Landings Drive, Mountain View, 94404, California

    Christopher Chyba

  2. Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Christopher Chyba

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  1. Christopher Chyba
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Chyba, C. Buried beginnings. Nature 395, 329–330 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/26357

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