Ancient Ecosystem Found in Ice Pocket
Emily Sohn, Discovery News e-mail share bookmark print
Blood Falls | Discovery News Video April 16, 2009 -- Beneath a glacier in Antarctica, scientists have discovered a community of microbes growing in frigid pools of salty water.
It's a particularly tough environment, with no light, no oxygen, and extremely cold temperatures. But the microbes appear to live -- and thrive -- off a combination of iron and sulfur, according to a new study. The result of that strange metabolism is a brilliant red streak of cascading ice called Blood Falls.
"I don't know of any other place like it on Earth," said Jill Mikucki, a geomicrobiologist now at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. "It's an attractive feature in a barren landscape of brown dirt, white ice and blue sky."
Emily Sohn, Discovery News e-mail share bookmark print
Blood Falls | Discovery News Video April 16, 2009 -- Beneath a glacier in Antarctica, scientists have discovered a community of microbes growing in frigid pools of salty water.
It's a particularly tough environment, with no light, no oxygen, and extremely cold temperatures. But the microbes appear to live -- and thrive -- off a combination of iron and sulfur, according to a new study. The result of that strange metabolism is a brilliant red streak of cascading ice called Blood Falls.
"I don't know of any other place like it on Earth," said Jill Mikucki, a geomicrobiologist now at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. "It's an attractive feature in a barren landscape of brown dirt, white ice and blue sky."
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