Home Science & Environment Ice lake discovered to carry beforehand unknown life

Ice lake discovered to carry beforehand unknown life

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Scientists discovered liquid water — and, surprisingly, life — on the backside of a frozen Antarctic lake.

The splendidly named Lake Enigma has a mean temperature of -14°Celsius (6.8°Fahrenheit), and scientists had lengthy assumed it was fully frozen all the best way down. But in 2019, researchers found a 40-foot basin of liquid water beneath a thick layer of ice. Since then, scientists have drilled the ice to gather water samples, revealing the basin is dwelling to a beforehand unknown species of micro organism.

The lake is remoted from different environments by its ice cowl, and researchers consider the micro organism dwelling there now could also be descended from a presumably thriving ecosystem that existed earlier than it first froze over, some 14 million years in the past.

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