Is Antarctica alive??
No, not as a conscious entity but rather ‘Is the ice alive with creatures that we are only starting to recognise?’
Antarctica has the oldest ice on Earth with some believed to date back a million years and a few pockets to possibly 8 million.
But here’s the thing. Scientists have found bacteria in the ice! Not a lot, at 300 bacteria in a millilitre of ice when you compare it to seawater at 100,000 bacteria in a millilitre, but still it is evidence of life.
These microbes appear to exist in tiny veins of liquid water crisscrossing the ice and containing nutrients they can feed on.
John Priscu of Montana State University has found microbes in 420,000 year old ice retrieved from 3km beneath the ice cap and when the ice was melted they began to grow.
Brent Christner of Louisiana State University has revived them from 750,000 year old ice!! Christner did discover that the older the ice the longer it takes for the bacteria to recover and begin to grow.
What they are not sure of is whether the ice is preserving ancient microbes in a state of suspended animation, whether they are alive but living very, very slowly or whether there is an active and flourishing community that grows, divides, dies and continues through the ages.
The good news is that scientists believe it is highly unlikely that some horror contagion or flesh eating bacteria will be released from the ice and wipe out humanity.
However, the release from melting glaciers could upset Earth’s shaky equilibrium and negatively affect the oceans as well as contributing to climate change. More knowledge is needed.