Half a mile beneath the harsh ice sheets of Antarctica, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey found something surprising: stationary life! Despite the cold temperatures and lack of sunlight, these mysterious creatures appear to be thriving.
Deep beneath the frozen expanses of our planet’s southernmost continent, life is stirring. Life that was never supposed to be there at all. And scientists have caught it on camera…completely by accident.
Antarctica is not a constant continent, but an ever shifting mass of ice. On average, Antarctica contains 90% of the world’s glacier ice, and while most of that makes up the desolate expanse that covers Antarctica’s land, key pieces of it are also hanging off the edge over nothing but ocean, in what’s called ice shelves.
And it’s what’s underneath the ice shelves that’s surprised us. In Antarctica’s surrounding waters we find all kinds of penguins, seals, and whales, but these all rely on the open ocean full of krill, fish, and other tasty treats.
Outside of this realm of big predators and tiny krill, the masters of the coldest, darkest places under the ice shelf are things like jellyfish, worms, crustaceans: life forms that can move around, and chase after their food.