How to Use subsurface in a Sentence

subsurface

1 of 2 noun
  • If there are salts above, the subsurface ocean might have that same brine.
    — Popular Science, 8 Nov. 2023
  • And Uranus’s moons—could some of them have subsurface oceans?
    — Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 19 Apr. 2022
  • But the ones in the subsurface, deeply buried in places where not much happens, can’t [grow fast].
    — Laura Poppick, Quanta Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Before putting down the turf, the dirt or soil subsurface of the area to be covered should be shaped and well tamped.
    — Popular Mechanics Editors, Popular Mechanics, 19 June 2021
  • The moons likely host subsurface oceans beneath their icy crusts that could support life.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 8 Dec. 2025
  • Pike also will take subsurface lures such as crankbaits, spinnerbaits and spoons.
    — Jordan Rodriguez, Idaho Statesman, 31 Jan. 2024
  • Jupiter’s four largest moons may be conspiring to maintain their subsurface oceans.
    — Nola Taylor Redd, Scientific American, 8 Sep. 2020
  • The oil can be trapped in the subsurface as returning water rushes to fill the pore space.
    — Jordan Blum, Fortune, 7 Mar. 2026
  • Each field has subsurface drainage, which feeds into a perimeter drain loop that leads to the retention ponds.
    — Abraham Nudelstejer, Dallas Morning News, 3 Mar. 2026
  • The brine could be pumped up, processed to remove lithium, and then returned to the subsurface.
    — Leonardo MacElloni, The Conversation, 10 Mar. 2026
  • Become a hub for subsurface storage.
    — Siddharth Misra, Fortune, 6 Mar. 2026
  • Brune said in the leak’s first days that the department understood that the event was a subsurface release.
    — Alex Demarban, Anchorage Daily News, 1 Apr. 2022
  • That pre-biotic material could be a recipe for life in the subsurface pools.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 21 Apr. 2022
  • Ceres also has subsurface water, remnants of what might have been an ancient global ocean.
    — Vahe Peroomian, The Conversation, 4 Apr. 2022
  • The video shows a number of air, surface, subsurface, and land assets preparing for the shoot-off.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 16 Sep. 2021
  • These changes indicate the movement of magma in the subsurface.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 8 June 2023
  • Knowing when the storm will start requires getting at the subsurface physics of magma reservoirs.
    — Quanta Magazine, 8 May 2026
  • These are complex reservoirs with a lot of subsurface dynamics.
    — CBS News, 4 May 2026
  • Enceladus is an ice-rock world with active plumes of gas and particles that originate from its subsurface ocean.
    — Jamie Carter, Forbes, 10 June 2022
  • These are complex reservoirs with a lot of subsurface dynamics, so those have to be brought back carefully.
    — CBS News, 26 Apr. 2026
  • The scientists believe that these subsurface pools may be the key to finding alien life on Europa.
    — Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 22 Apr. 2022
  • This data provides a cross-section of the subsurface down to about 1,000 feet.
    — Ian Jamesstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 18 Nov. 2022
  • In a separate project, scientists have used radar technology to shed new light on the subsurface of the moon.
    — Fox News, 9 July 2020
  • Figuring out which compounds are embedded in the icy crust could help give clues to the chemistry of the likely subsurface ocean.
    — Maya Wei-Haas, National Geographic, 9 Nov. 2020
  • Soft robots are being designed with an eye for subsurface tunnels on Mars and other bodies in space.
    — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 22 June 2023
  • Many icy moons in the outer solar system are believed to harbor vast subsurface oceans sandwiched between thick ice shells and rocky cores.
    — New Atlas, 18 Dec. 2025
  • Brine pools form in places where a sea was cut off from other oceans in the deep past and evaporated, leaving behind subsurface salt deposits.
    — Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 8 Sep. 2022
  • The new discover marks the first time that a subsurface feature has ever been detected on Venus.
    — Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 11 Feb. 2026
  • And of course, there is interest in that with Europa, Enceladus, of subsurface life.
    — Quanta Magazine, 9 July 2026
  • This might mean redirecting gutter downspouts, putting in subsurface drain lines to move the water away from the area, or even some regrading.
    — Paul Cappiello, The Courier-Journal, 21 July 2023

subsurface

2 of 2 adjective
  • The water, the study said, could be obtained from subsurface ice on Mars.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 16 Sep. 2020
  • Unlike surface waves that break at the coast, these are subsurface shifts in ocean heat that move across thousands of miles.
    — Brandi D. Addison, USA Today, 1 June 2026
  • Titan is thought to possess a subsurface liquid ocean that could be a breeding ground for biological life.
    — Neel V. Patel, Slate Magazine, 21 Dec. 2017
  • An antenna will be carried in a cart, pushed in a wheeled unit, or sledded over the ground to acquire subsurface information.
    — The Editors, Outside Online, 8 Apr. 2015
  • With this equipment, the researchers can generate a subsurface electrical field to indicate features such as stone or brick walls and old pits.
    — Karen Farkas, cleveland.com, 11 Oct. 2017
  • Far from being an inert snowball, Pluto proved to be an active world of mountains, glaciers and perhaps even a subsurface liquid-water ocean.
    — Andrea Gawrylewski, Scientific American, 1 May 2018
  • Farmland covers three-quarters of the state and more than a third of cropland has subsurface drainage to reduce excess water, which can assist in nutrient transport.
    — Morgan Greene, chicagotribune.com, 20 Dec. 2021
  • Environmentalist groups have argued subsurface wells beneath the ocean floor would be preferable to protect microscopic marine life.
    — Lauren Williams, Orange County Register, 19 Apr. 2017
  • Galilean satellites—Europa, Callisto, Ganymede and Io—have long hinted at the presence of subsurface liquid layers.
    — Nola Taylor Redd, Scientific American, 8 Sep. 2020
  • For so long, the leading candidates have been mysterious beings hidden in the soil on Mars or tiny creatures swimming in subsurface oceans on icy moons such as Europa and Enceladus.
    — Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 14 Sep. 2020
  • Two other targets are Jupiter’s intriguing moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, both of which have geysers believed to signal the presence of subsurface oceans.
    — Joel Achenbach, Anchorage Daily News, 25 Dec. 2021
  • The peaks might come from subsurface chemical reactions between rocks and water, carbon-rich meteorites that enter the atmosphere, or from sudden releases from reservoirs beneath Mars’ surface.
    — Nisha Gaind, Scientific American, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Property rights harness the discovery process—encouraging efficiency. Perhaps most relevant, however, is the ease with which subsurface mineral rights could be reconfigured.
    — WSJ, 9 Oct. 2017
  • Substantial biological diversity exists throughout the huge volume of subsurface habitable environments, which may reach (greater than 5 kilometers in) depth.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 2 Dec. 2020
  • Powered by solar energy, Zhurong will also look for signs of ancient life, including any subsurface water and ice, using a ground-penetrating radar during its 90-day exploration of the Martian surface.
    — NBC News, 22 May 2021
  • The team, led by researchers with the Queen Mary University of London, used computer models to analyze the rate of biological and chemical reactions in subsurface microbes and predict the consumption rates of individual microbes, per a statement.
    — Nora McGreevy, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Aug. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'subsurface.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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