A fish found under a half-mile thick ice sheet in Antarctica could imply so much for Northern Illinois University scientists...including extraterrestrial life.
Northern Illinois University geologists and other scientists funded by the National Science Foundation have been conducting climate change research in Antarctica since the 1970s -- that’s nothing new. However, the group became the first to retrieve samples of the “grounding zone,” or where Antarctic land, ice and sea all converge. The specimens were gathered to determine how quickly the ice caps are melting and for how long.
Ross Powell is a geology professor and scientist from NIU:
“We know that the ice is melting there, and what we now have to do is understand how fast that ice is melting and what the ice may have been doing in the recent past where the things have been changing there or whether they’ve relatively been the same for a long period of time.”
Powell fears the ice melting due to climate changing quickly could have negative implications.
“If you think of a car driving along a wet road and the possibility of it hydroplaning on a water surface because it loses friction, and that’s potentially what can happen with the ice sheet, if there’s a lot of water running around underneath the ice.”
This time the group –which included two faculty members, two graduate assistants and one doctoral student -- found fish and other invertebrates living and thriving in a body of water at 28 degrees underneath a large ice sheet. Ross said the group was shocked after someone noticed something swimming by their cameras.
“That person yelled out and said, ‘Look at that!’ And everybody turned and started cheering and shouting and stuff, because we quickly realized that there was a fish swimming into view, and it astounded everybody.”
This finding could raise the question of extraterrestrial life, particularly on Jupiter’s moon, Europa. NIU geologist Reed Scherer says the moon also has a body of water underneath an ice sheet.
“Where we drilled is as close in analogy to that as any other place on earth.”
But Powell says the scientists won’t jump the gun.
“I’m not saying that we’re likely to find invertebrate forms or anything on Europa, but suddenly the discovery of the microbial communities underneath the Antarctic ice sheet and that they’re such a viable, vibrant community that we microbiologists have described does lead to a credence of possibilities for finding life on these extraterrestrial bodies, too.”
Scherer says the discovery is intertwined with data about the environment and climate change. Debris from the ocean floor is kicked up with the melting ice.
“So the big question for us -- at least one of the big questions -- is, what is this community of fish and other organisms living off?”
And how long have these organisms been living in these extreme conditions?
“We expect that if the things that are living there are eating old food, then their carbon isotope signature will indicate that they are older than they actually are.”
Scherer was surprised at the diversity and the concentration of fish and invertebrates below the half-mile-thick ice sheet, but he was not surprised that life was there. He says life is pretty much everywhere where the most fundamental elements exist, like water and energy.
“If there’s something to eat, something will be there to eat it.”
Scherer says a lot of work must be done before anything is certain.
“Like any new discovery, it opens more questions, and we’re hoping to, in a couple of years, return with some new equipment and explore the sub-ice shelf cavity a little further.”
Both Powell and Scherer say it will take a couple of months before they can analyze the samples from the trip, and it could take years to draw final conclusions.