Scientists have accidentally found life under 3000 feet of ice in Antarctica- but what does that mean?
Image credits: Dr Huw Griffiths/British Antarctic Survey/Insider
The average temperature at Antarctica ranges between −10 °C on the coast to −60 °C at the highest parts of the interior. Up until now, most research suggested that life forms require temperatures between -15 degrees to 115 degrees Celsius.
However, on Tuesday, Business Insider reports that scientists have found life buried under 3,000 feet of ice in Antarctica, challenging the assumption that nothing could live in such conditions.
#Discovery | Scientists accidentally found life under 3,000 feet of ice in #Antarctica. 'Never in a million years' would they have expected it, the lead scientist said@BAS_Newshttps://t.co/QhkdH4CTIW pic.twitter.com/GlJwQXxng9
— Business Insider India🇮🇳 (@BiIndia) February 16, 2021
As mentioned earlier, scientists previously thought Antarctica’s frigid temperatures and lack of light and food made it impossible for living creatures to thrive.
The creatures were found attached to a boulder in the arctic seas under the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf. Experts from the British Antarctic Survey drilled through 2,860 feet of ice before making the discovery.
An ice shelf is a large floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface. The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, also known as Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf, is an Antarctic ice shelf bordering the Weddell Sea.
Image source: nsidc.org
“The area underneath these ice shelves is probably one of the least-known habitats on Earth,” said Huw Griffiths, one of the scientists who made the discovery, in a Twitter video. “We didn’t think that these kinds of animals, like sponges, would be found there.”
He also tweeted about the appreciation the discovery was getting.
So this story of the unexpected finding of filter feeding animals (including sponges) attached to a boulder under an #Antarctic ice shelf is proving popular today! These kinds of happy accidents can make science very exciting! Download the paper here:https://t.co/8BXh4rXo1C pic.twitter.com/xwmZn3uhBY
— Huw Griffiths (@griffiths_huw) February 15, 2021
