Buried beneath 4,000 feet of Antarctic ice lies Lake Mercer , a subglacial body of water that formed one thousand of years ago and has been long separated from the rest of the humankind . A undertaking to explore this lake — and its mysterious cognitive content — is finally place to get down later this month .
CalledSubglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access , or SALSA for brusque , the labor shoot for to uncover fresh knowledge about Antarctica ’s subglacial lakes , of which over 400 are known to live . Over the next two month , SALSA scientists will explore one of the largest subglacial lake in West Antarctica , a body of water supply known as Lake Mercer . The squad will bear through some 4,000 foot ( 1,200 meters ) of ice using a 60 - centimetre - wide Mandrillus leucophaeus capped with hot water . In addition to distill water and mud samples , the research worker will deploy a remotely manoeuver vehicle — a scientific first for a subglacial lake .
The SALSA team is skip to learn more about these icy alien environments , such as how water might flow in and out of these ice - overlay reservoirs , how life sentence is able to survive under such extreme conditions , the environmental factors under which these lakes formed , and the changing precondition of the Antarctic ice sheet . significantly , this mission could also dish up as a procurator for future expedition to the ice - covered synodic month of Jupiter and Saturn — moons that could potentially harbor alien life .
What does#nsfsalsahave to do with distance ? If biography can exist thousands of feet under methamphetamine in#Antarctica ’s subglacial lakes , living could be elsewhere , like on Jupiter ’s lunation Europa and Saturn ’s moon Enceladus , which both have oceans under ice . Photo credit:@NASA#astrobiologypic.twitter.com / ueqbbSfnRI
— Salsa Antarctica ( @SalsaAntarctica)December 7 , 2018
Eleven principle detective from eight dissimilar U.S. institutions are involved in this three - yr task , along with a turn of international experts . SALSA was founded and funded two years ago by the Antarctic Integrated System Science Program with avail from the U.S. National Science Foundation ’s Office of Polar Programs .
Earlier this week , 21 members of the SALSA science squad arrived at Antarctica ’s McMurdo Station in preparation for the drilling . From there , personnel and cargo will be fly to the worksite , which is turn up about 500 miles ( 800 kilometer ) from the South Pole . Should all go according to design , oil production could start by Christmas . From now until January of next class , around 50 scientists , drillers , and support staff will assist with the projection .
21 Members of the Science Team Arrive at McMurdo Station and Geophysics Team Moves to Whillans Subglacial Lakehttps://t.co/EaAXTz8ui6pic.twitter.com/w7X8uiB31l
— Salsa Antarctica ( @SalsaAntarctica)December 10 , 2018
Lake Mercer was first detected via artificial satellite more than a decade ago , but it ’s never been explored by humans . The subglacial lake measures about 62 square miles ( 160 straight km ) in size , which is over twice the size of it of Manhattan . But it ’s not very cryptic — just 30 to 50 feet ( 10 to 15 metre ) at its deepest points . The water in the lake hovers around the freezing point , but it never solidify owing the tremendous pressure wield onto it from the piles of ice directly above . Lake Mercer in all likelihood form about 10,000 long time ago , but it ’s ahydraulically activebody of water , featuring H2O replacement times on the order of about a decade ( so it ’s not completely isolated from the eternal sleep of Antarctica ) . As part of SALSA , scientists will also research Lake Engelhardt , another orotund subglacial lake on the Whillans Ice Plain .
SALSA will be the third labor to explore an Antarctic subglacial lake;Lake VostokandLake Whillans(the latter of which is very close to Lake Mercer and , like Mercer , is also located on the Whillans Ice Plain ) were both explored in 2013 . Both lake yielded a surprising number of microbes , and SALSA scientists are anticipating like findings in Lake Mercer .
Once the drill pierces into the lake , SALSA scientists will educe water samples and mud , as Nature Newsreports . An ice center sample up to 26 feet ( 8 meters ) in length will aid the scientists age the lake and its contents , and show scientists how the lake ’s microorganisms are obtaining their nutrients . The remotely operated vehicle will snap photos of the reservoir and use its automatonlike pincer to get the picture more sample distribution textile .
In terminal figure of the life sentence that could live in Lake Mercer , the SALSA scientists could definitely be in storage for something interesting , as Nature News reports :
grounds pulled up from the drilling project at Lake Whillans has spawn a series of discovery that have regulate the current programme at Lake Mercer , 40 kilometres to the sou'-east . The water from Lake Whillans teemed with 130,000 microbic cell per millilitre — a universe 10–100 time self-aggrandizing than some researchers look . Many of the microorganisms obtained their energy by oxidise ammonium or methane , probably from deposit at the bottom of the lake . That was a central brainwave , because it paint a picture that this ecosystem — seemingly swerve off from the Sun and photosynthesis as an vitality seed — was still qualified on the outside world in an indirect way .
The researcher who canvass Lake Whillans suspect that the ammonium and methane ooze up from the lake ’s muddy level from the rotting corpses of marine organisms that collect during warm periods , millions of years ago , when this region was overlay by ocean rather than ice . Evidence of this food germ came from Reed Scherer , a micropalaeontologist at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb , who was part of the Whillans project . He found the shells of diatom ( single - celled algae ) and the skeletal fragment of ocean quick study litter throughout the lake ’s mud . “ There is a marine - imagination legacy that the microbes are still tapping into , ” he enunciate .
In addition , the SALSA researchers will be on the lookout for animal life , which was n’t detect in either Lake Vostok or Lake Whillans .
depth psychology of the microorganisms found within the waters of Lake Mercer could show how life might pull round on Jupiter ’s moon Europa and Saturn ’s moon Enceladus . Both moons are covered in chicken feed but have warm body of liquid water beneath . There ’s a decent probability that the stipulation within Lake Mercer could resemble those found on Enceladus and Europa .
It ’s a very exciting project indeed , and we ’ll be follow the scientists ’ advance closely . Stay tune in the amount hebdomad and months for updates .
[ Nature , SALSA , Montana State University ]
AntarcticaBiologyExtremophilesGeologyScience
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