Imagine an area the size of Chicago completely covered in ice. Now imagine what might be hidden underneath. You're probably thinking of a cold and inhospitable desert, right? Nothing could be more wrong. When the giant iceberg A-84 broke away from the Antarctic ice shelf, it revealed a secret that amazed even the most expert scientists: a thriving ecosystem teeming with life.
Nature, once again, shows us how little we know about its most intimate and hidden mechanisms. At 1.300 meters deep, where sunlight has never reached for hundreds of years, life not only exists, but thrives in surprising forms. A discovery that not only broadens our understanding of extreme environments, but also offers us precious clues about the past and, perhaps, the future of our oceans on a planet which heats up quickly.
An unexpected underwater paradise
The discovery was made thanks to the underwater vehicle About Bastian, which was able to explore the seabed finally accessible after the calving of the giant iceberg. What scientists found defied all expectations: large corals and sponges that supported other forms of life, including ice fish, giant sea spiders and octopuses.
How bizarre is this scenario: creatures that have lived for decades, perhaps centuries, in an environment we considered inhospitable. As if we had discovered a rainforest in the middle of the Sahara desert.
Patricia Esquete, co-scientific leader of the expedition and researcher of theUniversity of Aveiro in Portugal, he declared in the press release of British Antarctic Survey:
“We didn’t expect to find such a beautiful and thriving ecosystem. Based on the size of the animals, the communities we observed have been there for decades, perhaps even hundreds of years.”
Giant Iceberg A-84, Life Always Finds a Way
How did these organisms, without nutrients from the surface (locked in by the ice shelf), not only survive but create such a complex ecosystem? Scientists hypothesize that ocean currents are the critical factor for life beneath the ice shelf.
It is amazing how life always manages to find a way to thrive, even in the most extreme conditions. These organisms have developed unique survival strategies, adapting to an environment devoid of light and seemingly devoid of resources.
The discovery was made thanks to the research vessel R/V Falkor ofSchmidt Ocean Institute, a 111-foot vessel that reveals hidden details of life on Earth’s ocean floors. In the past, the vessel has mapped undiscovered areas of the ocean floor and even captured images of octopuses’ intimate breeding grounds.
An opportunity born from the crisis
There is something paradoxical about this discovery: on the one hand, the calving of the giant iceberg A-84 is a worrying signal of global warming; on the other, it has created a unique opportunity to study an otherwise inaccessible environment.
Sasha Montelli, the other scientific co-responsible of the expedition and researcher of theUniversity College London, stressed:
“Ice loss from the Antarctic ice sheet is a major contributor to sea level rise worldwide. Our work is critical to providing a longer-term context of these recent changes, improving our ability to project future changes.”
It’s as if nature is offering us one last glimpse of a world that may be disappearing, a fleeting opportunity to study and understand what we’re losing. The ROV SuBastian and R/V Falkor will almost certainly make new discoveries about the extreme environments where life can survive before their journeys come to an end.
I wonder how many more secrets are still hidden beneath the vast expanses of Antarctica's ice, and how many of them we will be able to discover before climate change alters them forever. It's a race against time, where each discovery can be both a revelation and a farewell.
