Why is life on Earth confined to such a narrow layer near th Earths surface???

Answer 1

Heat and Cold my friend.

Answer 2

Narrow is relative - in so far as the whole thickness of the earth it is narrow, but there are still many places where life has been found, including miles down in rock and soil, and of course at the bottom of the sea.

This is one of the main reasons for the continued exploration of Mars and some of the moons in the solar system - if life can survive in hostile and unexpected places on earth, there may be life elsewhere in the solar system.

But here on earth the main limiting factors to the confinement of life are heat, cold and radiation. At some point the earth's crust becomes too hot for even the toughest microbes to survive, and on the other end of the continuum there is the atmosphere. The higher you go into the earth's atmosphere the colder it gets and the more radiation you are exposed to - at some point the atmosphere becomes too hostile for life.

Answer 3

I think that this is because of our need to access oxygen in its gas form. Below the surface of the earth whatever oxygen might exist is understood to exist in various chemical compounds inside rocks and lava formations.
At 10,000 feet above sea level the atmosphere becomes rather thin and there is little oxygen to breathe and this reduces the total number of life forms which can live there pretty dramatically.

As a result, unless the life form you have in mind can inhale no air, or solid rock (molten at some depths), it probably isn't going to survive as a viable species outside the normal altitudes that are currently inhabited.

Also, in your question I noted a rather loose term called "life." I take it that you wish to consider all life forms, possibly even plants and bacteria. So in that regard we must also widen our scope of interest to include the extreme depths of the ocean which might be as much as several miles below the surface. Certain organisms have adapted to life in those hostile situations.
I read some article in Nat'l Geo. about worms living adjacent to boiling water outlet pipes in the floor of the ocean somewhere, and I guess those would certainly qualify as life forms. The trick is, "can they build a Ferrari or a Corvette?"

Answer 4

Because the religious folks who think their stinking rotting corpse is going to come back when Jesus returns have planted their relatives all over the freaking planet cluttering up the soil and creating a ghoulish garden of dead bodiesjust below the surface.

That and living underground is-well-creepy. Unless you happen to be a mole or a gopher.
Nature does know best where each lifeform should live.

Answer 5

There are places deep under the ocean that are so far down that there is NO light. There are vents that spew billowing clouds of toxic sulfur dioxide into the ocean and do so at temperatures that would cause the water to boil if it were not under so much pressure. Yet even here we find life. Lots of it. We find life at the poles and on the tops of the highest mountians. Even death valley has life. You need to get out more.

Answer 6

The Lake of fireplace.Universalism is antichrist.Arguments could properly be made relating to the reality that young ones and retarded anybody is obviously stored.yet anybody is going via Jesus Christ on Judgment Day.anybody!And noone can say the Gospel hasn't been unfold around the globe via now.God's regulations are written on the hearts of all people.those hypothetical eventualities are in basic terms no excuse to reject Jesus Christ.Christ will address people who have not heard the Gospel,yet accompanied His regulations as suited as achievable.yet remember this:basically Jesus Christ became into waiting to maintain the entire of the regulation.Being solid does not replace the Adamic sin nature.

Answer 7

What I'll agree with the poster who says that life appears all over the planet, it is also true that MORE life and MORE ADVANCED life appear in temperate areas with ample rainfall. On this planet at least, water in a liquid state and fairly warm temperatures appear to be the key to allowing most life forms to thrive.

Answer 8

It's not -- whatever gave you that idea?
We've found life at the deepest depths of the ocean, and on the highest mountaintop. We've found bacterial life thousands of feet under solid ground. There's life under the ice in Antarctica. Basically, anywhere there's the slimmest possibility that life can exist on earth, it does. Isn't evolution a wonderful thing? ;-)

Answer 9

Oxygen

Answer 10

yea, and besides that, once you get more than a couple feet under the surface, you get into packed dirt, clay, or just solid bedrock, and not much likes to live in a place where it cant move around or get any sunlight. and well, its also kind of hard to live in the sky....

Answer 11

That is where the gasses are. Nutrients in the soil and gasses like O2, N2, etc. to promote growth of organisms.