Scientists affiliated with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) will discuss recent progress in understanding life beneath the seafloor at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting, held in San Francisco from Dec. 3-7, 2012. Once considered a barren plain dotted with hydrothermal vents, the seafloor and the crust beneath it are humming with microbial life — with “dark energy”. Once considered a barren plain dotted with hydrothermal vents, the seafloor and the crust beneath it are humming with microbial life — with “dark energy,”