Report: Evidence of Life Found in Lake Deep Beneath Antarctic Ice

Source: Gizmodo

Report: Evidence of Life Found in Lake Deep Beneath Antarctic Ice

Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Today 12:49pmFiled to: ANTARCTICA

Scientists have found the bodies of tardigrades, algae, diatoms, and small crustaceans in a body of water buried beneath over a kilometer of Antarctic ice, according to a news report from Nature.

The results come from the Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) project, which had previously announced that it would explore the water, called Lake Mercer, with a 60-centimeter-wide drill. The discovery marks the first results from that project, which seeks to understand these strange, watery environments.

The carcasses originated from either 10,000 or 120,000 years ago during warming periods, after which ice smothered the lake again, according to Nature. It’s unclear how the life, particularly the land-dwelling, microscopic tardigrade and a certain fungus, got down there. But it’s thought that they subsisted on bacteria in the water.

This was the third time that scientists have explored an Antarctic subglacial lake, and the first time scientists had accessed Lake Mercer, having only explored it with radar before, according to the Nature report. Researchers discovered the lake over a decade ago. It is 62 square miles (160 square kilometers) in area and around 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the South Pole.

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Read more: https://gizmodo.com/report-evidence-of-life-found-in-lake-deep-beneath-ant-1831870240

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Related: EXCLUSIVE: Tiny animal carcasses found in buried Antarctic lake (Nature)