From Newsgroup: talk.origins
longish article of the well-how-about-that variety. and
in the New Yorker at that.
https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/the-mystery-of-dark-oxygen
archived at
https://archive.ph/w6xmO
The Mystery of Dark Oxygen
Scientists once thought that life-sustaining oxygen
existed only near EarthrCOs surface. Then they
detected it deep underground.
August 13, 2026
...
The scientists had come not for precious metals
but for something even more elusive: what they
call dark oxygen. On EarthrCOs surface, plants and
algae produce plentiful oxygen from sunlight and
water, allowing us to live and breathe. At one
time, scientists didnrCOt think that significant
quantities of free oxygen, or O2, would be found
anywhere else on the planet, in part because O2
reacts aggressively with other elements. rCLO2 is
way less abundant in the universe than diamond,rCY
Emil Ruff, a microbial ecologist and the expedition
lead for the trip, told me. But, over the past few
years, small quantities of free oxygen have been
detected in a range of deep places, far removed
from the light of the sun. Ruff and his colleagues
hoped to collect new samples of ancient water in
the mine. They suspected that oxygen was playing
an unrecognized role in powering underground life.
...
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2