The North American expedition under the name of “Wissard” ( Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) has discovered that life resides under the cold ice of Antarctica and, moreover, in abundance: under a layer 800 meters thick where it does not pass neither light nor air for millions of years, there is a complete ecosystem .
The life forms found by researchers from various universities make up unicellular organisms – most of them belonging to the Archean domain – that subsist thanks to the conversion of ammonia and methane into energy .
“Now we can prove to the world unequivocally that Antarctica is not a dead continent ,” says John Priscu, leader of the research. In fact, the conclusions of the study, published in the journal Nature , put on the table for the first time, credible evidence that life is capable of making its way even in the most difficult environmental conditions. According to Brent Christner, co-author of the study, “ There is not only life, but active ecosystems that we have been looking for for decades . With this work we hit the table and affirmed: Yes, we were right ”.
The species found, according to the scientists, are very difficult to identify but, according to Christer, “” We have seen a column of water that probably has about 4,000 things that we could call species. There is an incredible diversity.
The Wissard expedition will again drill the Antarctic glacier (Lake Whillans) during the next southern summer. This lake represents just one of the more than 200 known under the surface of this frozen continent that contains 70% of the water on Earth .
