Leaving the thin surface veneer of the Blue Planet, investigations of the subsurface architecture of the marine and terrestrial subsurface are challenging our understanding of the distribution and age of water, fluxes of elements like carbon in and out of the subsurface, and the character and distribution of energy. Recent discoveries are transforming our understanding of habitability and the limits to life in the subsurface. How might our current understanding these systems be limited if our focus remains primarily on surficial, or high energy, or recent and readily accessible systems? What inferences can be draw from the Earth’s subsurface processes to inform the exploration of other planets and moons? This session will address how novel processes of energy production and transport in the crust, models of hydrogeologic connectivity (and/or isolation), and long-term transport and reaction timescales are providing new insight though the integration of biology, hydrogeology, geochemistry, and planetary science.

https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm19/prelim.cgi/Session/81521

Conveners Barbara Sherwood Lollar, Jack Mustard and Maggie Osborne