‘Hidden world’ of marine life discovered in Antarctic ‘river’ under ice

New Zealand scientists jumping up and down' at find during investigation of climate-induced melt of ice shelf

Beneath a vast Antarctic ice shelf, in a cathedral-like cavern hundreds of metres high, are swarms of little shrimp-like creatures in a newly discovered underwater ecosystem that, until recently, had remained an ice-locked secret.

A team of scientists from New Zealand discovered the ecosystem 500 metres below the ice in a suspected estuary, hundreds of kilometres from the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.