The Deep Hot Biosphere
The Myth of Fossil Fuels
by Thomas Gold · first published 1999
22% recommend78% neutral
This book sets forth a set of truly controversial and astonishing theories: First, it proposes that below the surface of the earth is a biosphere of greater mass and volume than the biosphere the total sum of living things on our planet's continents and in its oceans. Second, it proposes that the inhabitants of this subterranean biosphere are not plants or animals as we know them, but heat-loving bacteria that survive on a diet consisting solely of hydrocarbons that is, natural gas and petroleum. And third and perhaps most heretically, the book advances the stunning idea that most hydrocarbons
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A good book on bacteria living deep underground is 'The Deep Hot Biosphere' by Thomas Gold: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold#The_Deep_Hot_Biosph... It's somewhat controversial, but it's a good read.
on “Blood-like microbes spew out of Antarctic glacier” ↗Tommy Gold looks increasingly prescient. Refer to his book, “The Deep Hot Biosphere”, written nearly twenty years ago. (And check him out on Wikipedia - he also first stated how the ear hears different frequencies and that pulsars are spinning neutron stars.) These organisms are close…
on “Strange life-forms found deep in a mine point to vast 'underground Galapagos'” ↗Reminds me of the Deep Hot Biosphere theory by the brilliant and controversial Thomas Gold. Posited as early as 1992 this theory states that microbial life is very prevalent at great depth and that it may be responsible for the production…
on “Deep Beneath Your Feet, They Live in the Octillions” ↗It is primordial methane that is transformed into long chain hydrocarbons by pressure and heat, according to “The Deep, Hot Biosphere” by Thomas Gold.
on “The deepest hole we have ever dug” ↗https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin Thomas Gold in the “Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels” explores the idea in depth. It’s not quite a crank theory (I think Gold has a legit academic publication history) but it kind of teeters on the edge. It’s one of those ones…
on “Does Oil Come from Dinosaurs?” ↗"A decade ago, we had no idea that the rocks beneath our feet could be so vastly inhabited." Over 30 years ago Thomas Gold published "The Deep Hot Biosphere". A review in PNAS is here [1]. [1] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1701266114
on “There's a 'Subterranean Galapagos' Deep Inside the Earth” ↗In his book "The Deep Hot Biosphere" Thomas Gold argued that life probably originated deep underground. Gold is a pretty controversial figure, but this hypothesis makes sense for a number of reasons: the underground environment is a lot…
on “The deeper under the Earth's surface, the more species you can find” ↗Reminds me of Thomas Gold's "Deep Hot Biosphere" theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gold#%22Deep_Hot_Biosph...
on “There's Life Inside Earth's Crust” ↗I was lucky as an undergrad to attend a small lecture by Tommy Gold [1] near the end of his life, where he advocated the ideas described in his book Deep Hot Biosphere. He was often ahead of his time and unafraid to take controversial positions to get there (including the now-accepted, but once derided, phenomenon that we know today as the pulsar). You might be right…
on “Radioactivity may fuel life deep underground and inside other worlds” ↗…theory, Thomas Gold thought that hydrocarbons came from underneath and then was processed by the metabolism of bacteria living far beneath the surface. He later wrote a book about the theory called "The Deep Hot Biosphere". He turned out to have been right about deep life at least. Here is a retrospective: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5502609/
on “Mazda has tested a synthetic fuel in an unmodified MX5 on a 1000-mile road trip” ↗