Far below the ocean waves, there is an ancient ecosystem of deep-sea lifeforms which thrive without the sun. Despite the darkness and intense pressure, diverse microbial life has found a home here, centered around the superheated sulfur and other chemicals spewed from hydrothermal vents.

These compounds, while toxic to surface life, feed chemosynthetic life which require hydrogen sulfide rather than sunlight like photosynthesizers. While these biomes seem almost alien to us, it's possible they were in fact the origin point of life on Earth. Colonies of bacteria have been found in the oldest water sources on Earth which reach back 1.6 billion years and scientists believe they would have been able to survive the sun's dangerous radiation before the ozone layer was formed.

This specimen is a fragment of one of those cauldrons of life, a piece of a prehistoric deep-sea hydrothermal vent from Kidd Creek Mine in Ontario, Canada. This location is home to a massive sulfide ore deposit that formed 2,715,000,000 years ago in the Archean Eon due to hydrothermal venting. Continued geothermal heating supports a sealed biosphere of bacteria to this day which mirrors the ancient hydrothermal colonies on the ocean floor that may have given rise to life on Earth.

Two sizes of material are available, both Small (0.5"-1") and Medium (1"-1.5") geologic fragments. The Small specimen comes in a gem jar and both include an informational card that serves as certificate of authenticity. All specimens arrive in a handsome, glass-topped riker box case measuring 4x3x1".

This incredible material is a portal into an ancient and alien world from one of the oldest ecosystems on Earth.

There are many places on Earth that we humans find strange and dangerous, but to some lifeforms, even the most extreme environment can be a home. At the bottom of the ocean, pillars of superheated sulfur belch from deep-sea hydrothermal vents, supporting tiny ecosystems that are perfectly adapted to live along the ocean floor. These lifeforms have evolved to use the basic elemental compounds and heat expelled from the vents, carving out a very special ecological niche. 

The darkness, intense pressure, and toxic compounds may be inhospitable to humans, but it is a perfect habitat for the microbial life that has built up around these vents. As it turns out, they may even be the origin point for life on Earth. In 1924, biochemist Alexander Oparin proposed that life originated from the synthesis of basic materials like water, ammonia, and methane. When combined with an energy source, Oparin said, these building blocks began to form more complex, self-replicating structures.

Oparin’s theory was revolutionary, but it lacked proof until the 1952 Miller-Urey experiment. In a laboratory environment, the chemists recreated the Earth’s early atmosphere and found it capable of producing amino acids, a prerequisite for life. Their experiment used two flasks: a water-based solution standing in for the oceans, and a gaseous one standing in for the atmosphere, composed of hydrogen, methane, and ammonia. As the water was boiled, an electrode emitted energy to simulate lightning strikes.

After a few days, a small buildup of amino acids and other organic compounds formed inside the flasks. While not considered life in itself, these compounds may have been able to replicate and become more complex, eventually leading the way to forming life. In Miller and Urey’s model, lightning striking the ocean’s surface provided the needed energy for the reaction, but this is only one theory. It has also been suggested that life did not form on the ocean’s surface, but miles below, on the sea floor.

Hydrothermal vents are one possible candidate for an environment that may have spawned the first basic lifeforms. They support bacterial life like proteobacteria and campylobacterota that use chemosynthesis, a process where compounds spawned from the vents like hydrogen sulfide convert carbon into organic material. This process is divorced entirely from photosynthesis, and thus is an ideal candidate for life’s origin, as sunlight was dangerous before the formation of the ozone layer.

This specimen is a geologic fragment from an ancient deep sea vent from Kidd Creek Mine in Ontario, Canada. This location is home to a massive sulfide ore deposit that formed 2,715,000,000 years ago in the Archean Eon due to hydrothermal venting. Continued geothermal heating supports a sealed biosphere of bacteria to this day which mirrors the ancient hydrothermal colonies on the ocean floor that may have given rise to life on Earth.

The discovery of this biome was the first evidence that such colonies of life exist within the Earth’s surface, not just in the deep sea. This bacteria is supported by the oldest known water source in the world, at 1.6 billion years old. The highly saline liquid carries within it hydrogen and sulfate that nurture the tiny microbes. Kidd Creek Mine is another testament to the extreme environments that life can thrive in on Earth, and maybe even beyond our planet. The specimen was donated by Glencore Canada's Kidd Operations. We are greatly indebted to Chief Geologist Peter Calloway's assistance in procuring this specimen.