Confirmed: Microbial life found half mile below Antarctic ice sheet
Wednesday, Nature (a scientific journal focused on the natural science) reported something either astonishing or expected, depending on your own personal mood: close to 4,000 species of microbes have been discovered growing in the cold, dark environment of Subglacial Lake Whillans in western Antarctica. Each quarter teaspoon of the tea-colored lake water brought to the surface had about 130,000 cells in it.
In the lightless environment of Subglacial Lake Whillans, the microbes rely on minerals from the bedrock and sediments. The pressure of the slowly moving ice above the lake grinds the underlying rock into a powder, liberating the minerals in the rock into the water, and making them accessible to the microorganisms living there. The microbes act on those iron, ammonium and sulphide compounds to create energy.
From the LA Times:
In the lightless environment of Subglacial Lake Whillans, the microbes rely on minerals from the bedrock and sediments. The pressure of the slowly moving ice above the lake grinds the underlying rock into a powder, liberating the minerals in the rock into the water, and making them accessible to the microorganisms living there. The microbes act on those iron, ammonium and sulphide compounds to create energy.
From the LA Times:
Scientists have discovered a diverse ecosystem of single-celled organisms that have managed to survive without ever seeing the light of the sun. The discovery, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature is not so much a surprise as a triumph of science and engineering. The research team spent 10 years and more than $10 million to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that life did indeed exist in sub-glacial lakes near the South Pole.
I remember the extraordinary measures being taken to avoid 'infecting' the pool water with contaminated drill bits and similar, and it seems this is revolutionary science at its best. We might not be any closer to solving our own species' problems, but this at least gives us into the ever-more extraordinary ways life can occur and opening our minds to what 'inhabitable places' really look like.
That's a whole lot of bacteria. Hope they enjoyed their moment of solitude, because it's over. I wouldn't be surprised if we find they have some extremely peculiar adaptations for life in that environment.
Kudos to the science team, anyway. This is good stuff.