Burial and Denudation Alter Microbial Life at the Bottom of the Hypo‐Critical Zone

How subsurface microbial life changed at the bottom of the kilometers-deep (hypo) Critical Zone in response to evolving surface conditions over geologic time is an open question. This study investigates the burial and exhumation, biodegradation, and fluid circulation history of hydrocarbon reservoirs across the Colorado Plateau as a window into the hypo-Critical Zone. Hydrocarbon reservoirs, in the Paradox and Uinta basins, were deeply buried starting ca. 100 to 60 Ma, reaching temperatures >80–140°C, likely sterilizing microbial communities present since the deposition of sediments. High salinities associated with evaporites may have further limited microbial activity. Upward migration of hydrocarbons from shale source rocks into shallower reservoirs during maximum burial set the stage for microbial re-introduction by creating organic-rich “hot spots.” Denudation related to the incision of the Colorado River over the past few million years brought reservoirs closer to the surface under cooler temperatures, enhanced deep meteoric water circulation and flushing of saline fluids, and likely re-inoculated more permeable sediments up to several km depth. Modern- to paleo-hydrocarbon reservoirs show molecular and isotopic evidence of anaerobic oxidation of hydrocarbons coupled to bacterial sulfate reduction in areas with relatively high SO4-fluxes. Anaerobic oil biodegradation rates are high enough to explain the removal of at least some portion of postulated “supergiant oil fields” across the Colorado Plateau by microbial activity over the past several million years. Results from this study help constrain the lower limits of the hypo-Critical Zone and how it evolved over geologic time, in response to changing geologic, hydrologic, and biologic forcings.