British scientists are due to begin drilling to in an extraordinary search for life in a lake that has lain hidden beneath three kilometres of Antarctic ice for a million years.
The researchers have joined a team of engineers enduring the bitterly cold climate as they prepare to bore down to Lake Ellsworth, using a sterile hot water drill, to retrieve samples of water and sediment. Any life that they find will have evolved in isolation for at least 100,000 years, but probably much longer, a newspaper reported. Scientists hope to discover whether organisms can endure such harsh environments – and if so, how?
The secrets of the lake – a body of water the size of Windermere – should help further the understanding of life on Earth, as well as the search for life elsewhere in the solar system.
Mike Bentley, a Durham University geologist on the team, told the Guardian: “Extreme environments tell you what constraints there are on life. If we find a particular environment where life can’t exist, that creates some bookends: it tells you about the limits of life.”
Ellsworth is one of hundreds of subglacial lakes in Antarctica that formed when warmth emanating from Earth’s core melted the bottom of a glacier.
