Rock-Eating Bacteria Discovered Underneath the Ice of an Antarctic Lake

Researchers have confirmed an array of microorganisms living in a sub-glacial lake in Antarctica that also includes an extensive family of rock-eating bacteria.

Beneath 2,640 feet of ice, Lake Whillans is buried. It's home to the Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctica but is also part of a vast sub-glacial drainage network that scientists now know supports life.

"It's the first definitive evidence that there's not only life, but active ecosystems underneath the Antarctic ice sheet, something that we have been guessing about for decades," said lead study author Brent Christner of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, via UPI. "With this paper, we pound the table and say, 'Yes, we were right.'"

Researchers found that the microorganisms are fed by ice from above, whilst the lake is made possible through melting that's caused by geothermal heating from below. The study results also showed that the organisms are archaei, which belong to one of the three domains of life. Other are bacteria and eukaryote.

Close to 20 years ago, scientists had made a similar discovery in a nearby area. However, they were conducting different research at the time that did not involve looking for microorganisms. Unfortunately, remaining samples melted and the validity of the findings were called thrown out.

"People weren't really thinking about ecosystems underneath the ice," Christner added, via Discovery News. "The conventional wisdom was that they don't exist, it's a place that's too extreme for this kind of thing."

This time around, when researchers actually went looking for life, they found it!