Dormant deep-Earth microbes may wake after millions of years
A Live Science feature explores 'intraterrestrials'—microbes living deep in Earth's crust that can remain dormant for hundreds of thousands to millions of years. Scientists propose these organisms may awaken only when slow geological processes bring them back to nutrient-rich surface environments, raising questions about Darwinian evolution in nongrowing life and suggesting long-term dormancy could offer a selective advantage (GASP) as they wait for events like island subsidence, volcanic activity, or plate movement to “reawaken” them.