Breaking the Ice

Scientists recently uncovered some of the many mysteries of Antarctica’s Lake Enigma.

The permanently frozen lake is located between two glaciers – Amorphous and Boulder Clay – in the northern foothills of Victoria Land.

Its position prompted many researchers to believe that the entire lake was frozen. However, a research team found there was still water under thick layers of ice, according to a new study.

Ground penetrating radar showed beneath the ice at about 36 feet a layer of water with a maximum depth of 39.4 feet, according to Gizmodo.

And where there is water, there is usually life.

Recently, researchers drilled through the ice and carefully collected water samples from Lake Enigma to analyze their contents. The team carefully looked at elements and molecules, as well as sequenced RNA to spot any microorganisms that thrived in the lake.

“Lake Enigma supports a phylogenetically diverse and high-biomass microbial ecosystem that stands unique among Antarctic perennially ice-covered lakes,” they wrote in their study.

The discovered microbes include bacteria such as Pseudomonadota, Actinobacteriota, and Bacteroidota. The scientists also spotted a lot of Patescibacteria, an extremely simple bacteria with limited functions.

The findings suggested that the freshwater body hosted a diverse community of microorganisms before Antarctica became a frozen wasteland about 14 million years ago. Even so, the surviving microbes were isolated from the rest of the world.

“It is clear that Lake Enigma contains distinct ice-associated, planktonic, and benthic microbial communities,” the authors explained. “The ice-sealed planktonic and benthic microbiota of Lake Enigma likely represent persistent legacy biota that arose from the lake’s ancient microbial ecosystem before the freeze-up.”

While it might be small, the new study sheds some new light into the prehistoric ecosystem in Antarctica, as well as how current life forms pull through in extreme environments.

Correction: In Friday’s NEED TO KNOW section, we said in our “Yin and the Yang” item that former Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro was a former army officer who tortured civilians under the military junta that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. That is incorrect. Bolsonaro, a former military officer, was criticized for extolling those in that period who tortured civilians. We apologize for the error.