In the dark, freezing ocean under Antarctica's largest ice shelf, we discovered a thriving microbial jungle

  • Written by: Sergio E. Morales, Associate Professor of Microbial Ecology, University of Otago
In the dark, freezing ocean under Antarctica's largest ice shelf, we discovered a thriving microbial jungleShutterstock/Dale Lorna Jacobsen

Antarctica represents one of the last frontiers for discoveries on Earth. Our focus is on what lies beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica’s massive wedge of floating ice that shelters the southern-most extension of the Southern Ocean.

This ice-covered cavity contains an ocean nearly equal in volume to the...

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