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SOUDAN, Minn. (AP) ― Deep beneath the surface of northern Minnesota, in the lowest levels of the abandoned Soudan mine, mysterious microscopic creatures abound.

The organisms are in ancient water held by rock formed 2.7 billion years ago, when an early sea covered the region.

What are these bacteria? What stories do they tell?

Several University of Minnesota scientists would like to know. They recently applied for a state grant to study the microbes and water, as well as formations created in the mine. They didn't get the grant, but now they're looking for funding elsewhere, including the National Science Foundation.

The scientific prospects, they say, are intriguing.

One of the scientists, Calvin Alexander, thinks the research could help answer questions about water on Mars.

Another, Jeff Gralnick, envisions commercial applications, much like the new era of molecular genetics that emerged after bacteria were found unexpectedly three decades ago in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park.

The rich iron ore mined at Soudan was formed before oxygen was abundant in Earth's atmosphere.

Scientists found the bacteria after noticing formations emerging from old boreholes miners drilled five decades ago when seeking new ore veins. Extremely salty water lacking oxygen is seeping out of the bedrock and, after contact with air, is creating dynamic, colorful iron-oxide structures.

"This ancient water is teeming with bacteria, and we suspect bacteria may be playing a role in the formation of these iron structures," Gralnick said.

Gralnick, an assistant professor of microbiology and a member of the university's BioTechnology Institute, said the bacteria found in the water appear to be distant relatives of bacteria commonly found in the ocean.

These conditions might exist elsewhere, but they don't have what separates the mine at the Soudan Underground Mine State Park from others: accessibility. By simply getting in a cage and taking an elevator 2,341 feet down a well-maintained shaft, scientists have a ready-made laboratory to launch their work.

"That is what makes this rare," said Alexander, a geology and geophysics professor. "The mine hasn't been mined since the early '60s. Yet you can still get into it. ... This is a mine that is still accessible 50 years after the mining stopped. Fifty years for these interesting formations to develop."

That situation doesn't exist at many other mines.

"They are either active, and the mine company doesn't want you poking around, or they are abandoned and you can't get in," Alexander said. "They are full of water, and the elevators aren't running."

Alexander, Gralnick and colleagues Brandy Toner, Ryan Lesniewski and Scott Alexander are excited about the possibilities.

The university applied for a $523,140 grant from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, which funds innovative natural resources projects. The proposal, however, didn't make the final cut.

"Members were intrigued by it but felt it didn't fit the priorities that had been identified," commission director Susan Thornton said.

Last week, the 17-member board recommended the 2009 Legislature approve 33 other projects totaling $26.1 million.

Calvin Alexander wonders what parallels can be made to Mars, a planet believed to have iron-oxide-rich soil. He said formations found in the mine are similar to some observed in images of the surface of Mars, where water or a waterlike substance appears to have flowed in recent years.

"There are rimstone dams in the cave growing from strong brines and we see rimstone dams on Mars," he said of dams formed by water running over the edge of a pool and depositing material at the lowest point on the edge. "This could potentially explain how liquid water runs on the surface of Mars under current conditions."

"We found microbes that look like they belong in the ocean in the bottom of an abandoned iron mine in northern Minnesota," Gralnick said.

Moreover, he said, they have thrived in a harsh environment away from the sun, existing on an unknown food chain, one that includes iron. He said the discovery could have interesting commercial applications.

"We have tapped into something that may have existed for a very, very long time," Gralnick said.

And that, he said, has even greater scientific potential.

"When we look for life beyond our planet, we're going to be looking at extreme environments," Gralnick said. "Knowing how bacteria survive on our planet will help teach us where to look for them elsewhere."

It wouldn't be the first scientific endeavor in the Soudan mine. For much of the past three decades, physicists have tried to answer questions about the universe and the forces that shape it.

They go down the same elevators used until the mine officially closed in 1963, and that hundreds of daily visitors still use in the summer. But the scientists see things others can barely imagine.

"The Soudan mine is loaded with life," Calvin Alexander said. "It's loaded with very ancient life, very ancient microbiological life that might exist on the subsurface of Mars."

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