The most powerful system on Earth is only six inches thick.
A world so alive, so intricate, we could spend a lifetime studying it and still only meet the edges.
A single handful of healthy soil holds more living beings than there are people on the planet.
Bacteria, fungi, roots, and the collaborators weaving the fabric of life.
Soil feeds the forests.
Soil cleans the water.
Soil cycles nutrients and releases them slowly, showing us resilience in every season.
And as Paul Harvey reminds us,
“Despite all our accomplishments, we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”
A truth that humbles us every time.
Ancient rainforest soils are not ordinary soils. They are formed over tens of thousands of years through continuous weathering of bedrock under stable climatic conditions, constant microbial and fungal activity, dense root networks, and rapid recycling of organic matter. Many of these soils, classified as Ferralsols or Oxisols, are among the oldest on Earth. While they may appear nutrient-poor by agricultural standards, they are exceptionally rich in micromineral diversity and biological complexity. Rather than storing nutrients in large quantities, rainforest ecosystems circulate minerals continuously through living systems.
Minerals locked in stone are inaccessible to biology. In intact rainforest ecosystems, microbes and fungi act as translators between geology and life. Bacteria chelate minerals, mycorrhizal fungi transport trace elements across underground networks and plants integrate them into organic structures. Through this process, minerals become bioavailable, balanced and compatible with living cells. This biological mediation is the missing link between soil chemistry and human physiology.
The Yucatán Peninsula also carries a unique geological history. It is home to the Chicxulub impact structure, formed by a massive meteorite impact roughly sixty-six million years ago. Scientific studies show that impact material introduced distinctive trace element signatures into regional and global sediments, including iron, nickel, chromium, cobalt and trace platinum-group elements. Over geological time, these materials weathered, oxidized and bound to clays and organic matter, eventually entering the soil microbe plant cycle. The significance lies not in the meteorite itself, but in how living systems gradually integrated geological material into biologically usable forms.
Humans do not absorb minerals from rocks or soil directly. Minerals become relevant to human health only after passing through a long biological translation pathway: from soil to microbes, from microbes to plants, from plants to digestion and fermentation, and finally into human cells. This pathway mirrors the conditions under which human biology evolved. For most of our history, nutrition came from ecosystems, not isolated compounds.
At the cellular level, microminerals are essential for nearly every core biological process. Magnesium, iron, copper, and manganese are needed for mitochondrial energy production and ATP synthesis. Zinc, magnesium and iron support DNA replication, repair enzymes and epigenetic regulation. Selenium, zinc, copper and manganese enable endogenous antioxidant systems that protect cells from oxidative stress. Trace elements also regulate immune signaling, neurotransmitter synthesis and communication between cells. Deficiency does not always produce immediate disease, but it gradually erodes cellular stability and adaptive capacity.
Modern supplementation often focuses on isolated minerals delivered in high doses. Biology evolved in a very different context, one of broad mineral diversity, extremely low concentrations, synergistic ratios and organic binding shaped by living systems. Ancient rainforest ecosystems exemplify this principle. Their value lies not in excess, but in balance, complexity and biological intelligence.
Health is not built from a single compound or a single intervention. Sometimes, the smallest elements carry the deepest intelligence.
References
Lehmann, J., Kern, D. C., Glaser, B., & Woods, W. I. (2011). Soils of Amazonia with particular reference to Ferralsols and Oxisols. Biogeosciences, 8, 1415–1440.
Brady, N. C., & Weil, R. R. (2017). The nature and properties of soils (15th ed.). Pearson Education.
[Chapters on tropical soil formation and mineral cycling]
Adriano, D. C. (2001). Biogeochemistry of trace elements in terrestrial environments (2nd ed.). CRC Press.
Montgomery, D. R., & Biklé, A. (2016). The hidden half of nature: The microbial roots of life and health. W. W. Norton & Company.
Goderis, S., Paquay, F., Claeys, P., et al. (2021). Iridium anomaly inside the Chicxulub impact structure. Science Advances, 7(9), eabe3647.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abe3647
van der Heijden, M. G. A., Bardgett, R. D., & van Straalen, N. M. (2008). The unseen majority: Soil microbes as drivers of plant diversity and productivity. Frontiers in Microbiology.
FAO. (2015). World reference base for soil resources 2014: International soil classification system for naming soils and creating legends for soil maps. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.