Antarctic researchers have opened a new door to a world of tiny crustaceans that thrive in a salty estuary about 500 meters below the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest ice shelf in Antarctica.
New Zealand scientists from the National Institute for Aquatic and Atmospheric Research melted the shelf with a hot water hose until they discovered an under-ice river about 10 kilometers long, 275 meters wide and 250 meters deep. “Think Sydney Harbour, but imagine it’s under 600 meters of ice and snow,” said Craig Stevens, a marine scientist at NIWA. The river they found is too deep for sunlight to reach, so it’s completely dark and extremely cold.
However, when they sent some recording equipment down the hole they had dug, they found that the river was full of amphipods. Numerous shrimp-like crustaceans were visible, illuminated only by camera lights.
In a report by NIWA, Stevens said, “Seeing one of these makes you jump up and down with joy. We’ve been flooded with them.” “Seeing all these animals swimming around our camera means that an important ecosystem process is going on there, and we will do more research by analyzing water samples to test for things like nutrients,” Stevens continued.
The worlds below Antarctica remain a mysterious place due to the enormous difficulty of accessing sub-ice rivers or water columns. You have to fight the weather and pierce or melt thick ice to send drones or camera equipment. This is why Ernest Shackleton’s famous ship, the Endurance, has been lost for over a century.
Stevens said, “To some extent, everything is so new that we can just zip down a camera and get scenes that have never been seen before.”
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