The microbial forms of life living most on Earth would be in a volcano of South America, where various ecosystems thrive at nearly 6,000 meters above the sea level.

Without counting the life forms found in the clouds, the organizations recently discovered are the microbial populations living in more terrestrial high-altitude, says Steve Shmidt, a microbiologist at the University of Colorado.

Professor Shmidt and his team are studying usually the places where the glaciers have moved back, to find out what are the micro-organisms that inhabit primarily the newly exposed soil. Their work integrates research on climate change and life on other planets. On Mars for example, stretches of ice are the best places to look for possible forms of microbial life.

Like other micro-organisms living in the depths of the underwater volcanos, the new microbes were found in the ducts of the Socampa volcano which is drawn up at the border of Argentina and Chile, in the desert of Atacama.

Normally, majority of the land are as high desert. Yet, in conduits, the regular water emission, carbon dioxide and methane allow moss and microbial populations to develop on an area of 9 meters wide. “There is so much biodiversity in the soil of gardens,” said Shmidt.

However, microbes are not active all the time, because the conditions are extreme: the soil temperature fluctuates throughout the day from -15 ° C to 60 ° C.