New life discovered under kilometers of ice in Antarctica
Despite the extremely harsh environment, at a depth of more than 1km, under the thick ice layer of Antarctica, scientists have just discovered the existence of bacteria.
The dark waters of a deep lake beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet have been found to be teeming with bacteria.
This discovery has important implications for the search for life on other planets, especially on Mars, where there are signs of a buried salty lake.
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Description of the drilling site in Antarctica. |
Expedition leader John Priscu, an ecology professor at the University of Montana, said initial studies of water samples taken from the lake contained about 10,000 bacterial cells per milliliter.
The high levels of microbial life in the dark, ultra-deep lake are signs that it could support higher forms of life, such as microscopic animals, Priscu said.
"We saw a lot of bacteria and there was enough organic matter. So we would really have hope for higher organisms, like animals as well," said one researcher.
The abundance of bacterial life in Lake Mercer – a newly drilled glacial lake – complements the discovery of high levels of bacterial life in the nearby Lake Whillans subregion in Antarctica.
Lake Mercer is estimated to cover about 139 square kilometers under the ice. To access this bacteria-filled environment, the expedition team used a drill and hot water to drill a hole from their camp on the frozen surface into the buried lake during their time on the ice since mid-December last year.
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Currently, scientists are still continuing to conduct research. |
The hole drilled into the ice was kept for about 10 days and scientific sampling missions were stopped twice while it was expanded with hot water.
The team also lowered a specialized underwater vehicle (ROV) into the dark waters of the buried lake, along with several cameras they used to take photos and videos of the lake's bottom.
Priscu hopes that laboratory studies of the sediment cores, in particular, will help scientists learn more about the behavior of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet over the past tens of thousands of years and the unique ecosystem of liquid water trapped beneath the thick ice.
