Discoveries in geobiology have dramatically shaped our understanding of the nature, distribution, and evolutionary potential of terrestrial life, paving the way for new exploration strategies to search for life elsewhere in the Solar System. Genomic studies, applied over a broad range of geological environments, have revealed that the vast proportion of species on Earth are microbial. Studies of the fossil record indicate that this has been the case for >75% of our planet's history. Microbial life has been shown to occupy a stunning array of environmental extremes, seemingly only limited by the distribution of liquid water and its chemical activity, nutrient availability, suitable energy sources, radiation, etc. Advances in geomicrobiology have revealed important contributions of microbial processes to many global biogeochemical cycles, and in the evolution of Earth's atmospheric and surface composition. The discovery of a subsurface biosphere, fueled by inorganic chemical energy and able to tolerate extremes in temperature and salinity, has been especially important in opening up new horizons for the astrobiological exploration of Mars, as well as icy satellites of the outer Solar System. Although the environment of life's origin remains uncertain, molecular studies suggest that the last common ancestor of life probably lived in hydrothermal environments where it utilized simple compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur as sources of chemical energy. This general view is consistent with what we know about late Hadean to early Archean environments on the Earth, as well as model-based interpretations of late, giant impacts that could have exterminated early mesophilic (and possibly photosynthetic) surface life forms, leaving behind only deep subsurface chemotrophic thermophilic microbial communities to re-populate the biosphere. These and related discoveries have contributed extensively to the view that life could be much more broadly distributed, within the Solar System and beyond, than once thought. We now believe it possible that life may have become established in surface environments on Mars during the first half billion years of the planet's history, when liquid water was widespread there. Furthermore, a subsurface hydrosphere on Mars (suggested by both models and geomorphic evidence) may have provided a continuously habitable zone for life over most of Martian history and could still support an active, deep biosphere on Mars today. Exploration of the outer Solar System supports the presence of saline brines (perhaps oceans) beneath the icy crusts of Europa, Callisto, and possibly Ganymede, along with plausible energy sources for life based on chemical disequilibria between oxidized and reduced compounds. It also appears that interior zones of liquid water may also exist on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, while hydrocarbon oceans of liquid methane discovered on Titan may provide alternative solvents for novel life forms completely unlike anything found on Earth. Ongoing efforts to systematically explore potentially habitable environments elsewhere in our Solar System have helped catalyze the development of astrobiology, an emerging interdisciplinary science that seeks to understand the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the cosmos. Geobiology, which studies interactions of biological and physical-chemical systems and how they have evolved over the history of Earth, is a central focus of astrobiology, providing fertile ground for the growth of conceptual models and new technological tools needed to implement the search for extraterrestrial life elsewhere in the Solar System.

Newly recognized cyclomedusoid fossils in the Antelope Mountain Quartzite confirm that it is latest Neoproterozoic (Ediacaran) in age. Biogeographic affinities of the cyclomedusoid fossils suggest that the Yreka subterrane and its close associate, the Trinity subterrane, formed after the breakup of Rodinia in an ocean basin bordering Australia, northern Canada, Siberia, and Baltica. Reevaluating biogeographic, geological, and paleomagnetic evidence in the context of this starting point, the Yreka subterrane and Trinity subterrane may have been located at either 7°N or 7°S latitude ca. 580–570 Ma, but were not necessarily close to Laurentia. Continental detrital zircons (3.2–1.3 Ga) in the Antelope Mountain Quartzite most likely came from Australia or Siberia rather than Laurentia. The Yreka subterrane and Trinity subterrane record ∼180 m.y. of active margin events somewhere in Panthalassa (Proto-Pacific Ocean). Paleozoic biogeographic data, paleomagnetism, and regional relationships indicate that Yreka subterrane and Trinity subterrane were located throughout the early Paleozoic in the part of Panthalassa surrounded by Australia, NW Laurentia, Siberia, China, Baltica, and the Uralian terranes. By the mid-Devonian they were located at 31°N or 31°S in a somewhat isolated location, probably in a Northern Hemisphere oceanic plateau or island chain well outboard of other tectonic elements, and by the Permian they were almost completely isolated from other tectonic elements. The Yreka subterrane, as part of the Klamath superterrane, was not native to North America and did not accrete to it until the Early Cretaceous.

Newly recognized fossil cyclomedusoids from the Yreka terrane include Ediacaria sp. and Beltanella sp. They are typical of the Ediacaran fossil assemblage, range from 640 to 575 Ma, and thus are latest Neoproterozoic (Vendian) in age. The Yreka terrane structurally overlies the Trinity terrane, which also includes Vendian rocks. The Yreka terrane is a polygenetic stack of sedimentary and metasedimentary thrust sheets consisting of the Vendian Antelope Mountain Quartzite, Siluro-Devonian turbidites (trench fill), lower Paleozoic mélanges (accretionary complexes), and the Lower Devonian Gazelle Formation (trench-slope basin deposits). The Trinity terrane is a polygenetic mafic-ultramafic complex consisting of multiple mantle tectonite blocks and two ophiolitic crustal sequences, one Vendian and one Siluro-Devonian. Multistage textures and structures within the Trinity terrane indicate Vendian or Cambrian ductile deformation in the mantle blocks, followed by pre-Early Ordovician amalgamation, then regional uplift and brittle deformation. The Siluro-Devonian crustal sequence developed on this polygenetic composite basement in a supra-subduction zone setting. The Trinity and Yreka terranes formed close together, with some Yreka terrane components receiving Trinity terrane detritus. The Lower Devonian Gregg Ranch Complex was the active accretionary wedge on which the Gazelle Formation trench-slope basin formed, accompanied by minor near-trench volcanism. Kinematic analysis of the Gregg Ranch Complex indicates convergence directed from the Yreka terrane toward the Trinity terrane, combined with a strike-slip component, probably during Early Devonian collision of outboard terranes. The Yreka terrane–Trinity terrane composite terrane was then stitched together by Middle Devonian dike swarms that fed overlapping lava flows. Because of the close spatial and temporal proximity between the Yreka and Trinity terranes, paleopoles from the Trinity terrane can be used to suggest paleolatitudes where Yreka terrane biota may have originated, and biogeography of Yreka terrane fossils limits the paleogeographic setting of both terranes.