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Antarctic Subglacial Lakes May Not be Isolated
core plexus writes "Plans to drill deep beneath the frozen wastes of the Antarctic, to investigate subglacial lakes where ancient life is thought to exist, may have to be reviewed following a discovery by a British team. In a Letter to Nature they report that rivers the size of the Thames have been discovered which are moving water hundreds of miles under the ice. The finding challenges the widely held assumption that the lakes evolved in isolated conditions for several millions years and thus may support microbial life that has evolved 'independently'. It has been suggested that if microbes exist in the lakes, they could function in the same way as those in the subsurface ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa or within subsurface water pockets on Mars."
Is this a mistake; I thought the ice sheet was only a couple of kilometers thick. Hundreds of miles would be through the earth's crust, surely?
Ice works in mysterious ways, but not that mysterious. Microscopic fractures in the ice, at any point, can foster channels for warmer water to, not only seep in to, but begin to flow freely once more ice is meleted away by the influx of new(er) unfrozen water.
As the Earth's outer temperature continues to rise over the coming decades, we'll be seeing more of the 'cracked ice-cube effect'. The same affect that we see in glasses of water when we drop ice cubes in it. The warmer water causes the ice to expand at a rate which then causes fractures. Within minutes, and on a much smaller scale, those cracks begin to fill with the warmer water and, before long, those cracks have turned in to the lines which define the new separation from adjoined pieces of ice.
This is how glaciers come apart and start floating freely.
Yes. It's happening.
Ancient life for that matter. Those rivers date back hundreds of thousands of years.
Oh yes, lots of interesting life down there...
- chrish