In the 1840s, James Clark Ross’s voyages to Antarctica were stopped by the ice shelf that now bears his name. Today, we have discovered a vibrant microbial community living beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. Microbes gain their energy from inorganic nitrogen and sulfur compounds. In 2017, a hot-water drill was used to bore a hole through the thick ice. A filtration pump was used to collect samples, which were rushed to a lab before they froze. The microbes beneath the ice were found to possess great metabolic flexibility, enabling them to gather energy from multiple sources.
Key Takeaways:
- There is an ocean within the ice cavity that has the same amount of volume as the North Sea.
- There were findings that led the researchers to believe that there was life under the ice in the 19th century.
- Samples were given to colleagues in many different countries to test in labs such as Spain, Australia, and New Zealand.
“Our focus is on what lies beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica’s massive wedge of floating ice that shelters the southern-most extension of the Southern Ocean.”
