Oasis of Life under the Ice.

[mojo]

Oasis of Life under the Ice

Antarctica May Contain "Oasis of Life" (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071227-antarctica-wetland.html), aritcle from National Geographic.

I wonder if creatures larger than microbes could survive and evolve in this enviroment. If the ice sheet acts as a blanket and keeps the water in this area liquid then temeperatures shouldn't be too low for more evolved life forms to survive. The only requirement which might hamper the growth of more extravagent life forms would be energy, though as it states in the article if thermal vents are down there then this could meet the energy requirements of larger life forms.


Researchers have uncovered a complex subglacial system miles under the ice where rivers larger than the Amazon link a series of "lake districts," which may teem with mineral-hungry microbes.


The lakes—isolated from the atmosphere for more than 30 million years—ebb and flow as they empty into the polar sea. They stay fluid because the ice sheet above acts like a gigantic down blanket, trapping heat rising from Earth's interior.

news.nationalgeographic.com, page 2 (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071227-antarctica-wetland_2.html)

This worries me a bit, if these scientists remove lifeforms/microbes/bacterium etc that have not been exposed to our enviroment for millions of years could there be a chance that they would contaminate or mutate?


Some of these mysteries might be cracked within months, when Russian scientists drill down 2.3 miles (3.8 kilometers) to reach Lake Vostok. The giant lake, 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) beneath eastern Antarctica, was found in 1996 using satellite imagery and specialized radar technology.
If successful, the team will become the first to sample water from the lake.


But if hydrothermal vents are found in Lake Vostok that resemble energy-rich, biodiverse vents in the deep ocean, higher-order organisms could be possible, he added.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o223/mojo4sale/071227-antarctica-wetland_big.jpg

Amazing that there is a possibility of lifeforms living miles below the Antartic ice sheet in a wetlands enviroment. This research is also hoped to be able to help understand the requirements for life elsewhere in our solar system, in particular Mars and Europa.

Below is some related links.

Ice is continually sliding off Antarctica and into the sea. In ice streams, inland ice speeds into the ocean more than ten times faster than the rest of the ice sheet.
Using satellite images and elevation data, the study team found four new, large under-ice lakes right at the start of a massive ice stream in East Antarctica. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070221-antarctica-lakes.html)

Bizarre New Deep-Sea Creatures Found Off Antarctica. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070516-deep-sea.html)

Does Life Exist in Antarctic Lake Buried Under Miles of Ice? (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1115_041115_antarctic_lakes.html)

mojo

[anarch]

One wonders if microbal life under martian ice caps could be up there?..Under some martian mud or something...

[BE2]

This worries me a bit, if these scientists remove lifeforms/microbes/bacterium etc that have not been exposed to our enviroment for millions of years could there be a chance that they would contaminate or mutate?i think you have better things to worry about- like how ugly you are, for instance.

[mojo]

i think you have better things to worry about- like how ugly you are, for instance.

ever notice how the ugly guy's always seem to end up with the hot chicks!!

[BE2]

you mean like jedi?
Some of these mysteries might be cracked within months, when Russian scientists drill down 2.3 miles

[Royal]

LET's GOOOO MOJO!!!!!


http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/805863078/segway_x2_med.jpg

[anarch]

Segways of doom.

[face your erasure]

i am very curious about what is under there. i can't wait for them to penetrate it.

[KIWI]

This worries me a bit, if these scientists remove lifeforms/microbes/bacterium etc that have not been exposed to our enviroment for millions of years could there be a chance that they would contaminate or mutate?


dood ... go stand at your front gate ... now have a look at what walks/gambols/slopes/staggers/crawls by .....
maybe we invite the mutant contaminate's in?, ... it sure couldnt make it any worse! ;)


The lakes are isolated from the atmosphere for more than 30 million years and ebb and flow as they empty into the polar sea. They stay fluid because the ice sheet above acts like a gigantic down blanket, trapping heat rising from Earth's interior.

30 million years? .... I think the 14 000 000 they suggest below is still way to long ago ... mad as cheese :)



http://current.com/green/89127994_fossil-suggests-antarctica-much-warmer-in-past.htm
A college student's new discovery of fossils collected in the East Antarctic suggests that the frozen polar cap was once a much balmier place.

The well-preserved fossils of ostracods, a type of small crustaceans, came from the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica's Transantarctic Mountains and date from about 14 million years ago. The fossils were a rare find, showing all of the ostracods' soft anatomy in 3-D.

The fossils were discovered by Richard Thommasson during screening of the sediment in research team member Allan Ashworth's lab at North Dakota State University.

Because ostracods couldn't survive in the current Antarctic climate, their presence suggests that the southern-most continent hasn't always been as frigid as it is today.

"Present conditions in this Antarctic region show mean annual temperatures of minus 25 degrees C (Celsius) [minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit]," said Mark Williams of the University of Leicester, co-author with Ashworth of the fossil-find report in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "These are impossible conditions to sustain a lake fauna with ostracods."

The authors think the ostracods and the habitat they lived in were the last vestiges of a tundra ecosystem, similar to those found in Patagonia, that once thrived in Antarctic coastal regions, before an intense period of cooling gave rise to the Antarctic environment we see today.