Methanoliparia – Microbes That Degrades Oil To Gas

The crude oil as well as gas naturally escape from the seabed in many places known as seeps. These hydrocarbons then move up from source rocks through fractures and sediments towards the surface. Here is where they leak out of the ground and then sustain a diversity of densely populated habitats in the deep dark ocean. A large part of these hydrocarbons, especially alkanes, which is already degraded before it reaches the sediment surface. This provides an important energy source for subsurface microorganisms, even deep down in the sediment, where no oxygen exists.