Life finds a way

Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest place on earth. Parts of Atacama Desert haven't seen a drop of rain since record keeping began. All other desert life we know of, requires at least occasional rain or fog to supply water, but this region of the Atacama has neither. It's almost total lack of water seemed to be an insuperable barrier to life. Inspite of all this, it's a shock to learn some life forms do exist and more than a millioon people live there. Although rain rarely falls on the Atacama's coastline, a dense fog known as camanchaca is abundant. The fog nourishes plant communities called lomas, isolated islands of vegetation that can contain a wide variety of species, from cactuses to ferns. Human residents take advantage of the camanchaca and found a way to generate water from fog. The people there are aptly called as fog-catchers.

Recently, researchers found evidence of photosynthesis deep within the ocean. They found a bacterium that is the first photosynthetic organism that doesn't live off sunlight but from the dim light coming from hydrothermal vents nearly 2,400 meters deep in the ocean. The bacteria apparently live in the razor thin interface between the extremely hot water coming from a flange vent and the very cold water surrounding it. This is startling in the sense that you do not expect to find photosynthesis in a region of the world that is so completely dark.

The Most Powerful Volcanic Eruption of the 20th Century occured on 1912 in Novarota, Alaska. Enormous quantities of hot, glowing pumice and ash were ejected from Novarupta destroying all life in its path. Lushgreen forest was changed to a barren land filled with ash. The landscape is slowly recovering now. You can see life starting to grow in the form of small green sprouts.The soil there is full of ash and it has no nitrogen. Nitrogen is essential for plants to grow. The rocks there gathers nitrogen from atmosphere and deposits that in the soil, thereby enabling the plant growth.

These are the examples of life in extreme environments.This shows that there is this ability of humans/organisms to survive and live in areas that we wouldn't have imagined possible, and that life is much stronger than what we realized.

It's just amazing to see how life finds a way!!