ATLAS

Verified factsOMEGA-11-1-3Sheet 3 of 5 of the dossier Lost Antarctic civilization

Under the ice: what scientists have actually found

Subglacial lakes, microbes, a 90-million-year-old forest soil and a treaty with inspections: the documented content of Antarctica's hidden world.

Cross-section diagram showing an ice sheet, a borehole from Vostok Station down to a lake above bedrock, and circular microscope images of bacteria and pollen.
Diagram of the Lake Vostok system: the ice core from Vostok Station, the layer of ice accreted from the lake, and the microbes and pollen found in it (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, 2007). Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Summary

There is a hidden world under the Antarctic ice, and it is a documented one. The ice sheet covers 98% of the continent, over 14 million square kilometres, with an average thickness of more than two kilometres. Beneath it lie 675 known subglacial lakes, the largest being Lake Vostok, over 250 km long and sealed under about four kilometres of ice; its existence was confirmed in 1993, and Russian drillers pierced the ice to its surface in February 2012. What lives there is still debated: accretion ice, frozen lake water at the base of the ice, has yielded traces of microbes, and a 2013 study reported thousands of sequences, though contamination remains a concern. A cleaner sample came from Lake Whillans in 2013, where researchers found bacteria and a NASA-designed mini-submarine filmed the lake floor. The continent also holds a surprising past: sediment from the seabed off West Antarctica contains roots, pollen and spores of a temperate rainforest that grew about 90 million years ago. As for people, Antarctica has no native human population, only about 5,000 people at research stations in summer, and the Antarctic Treaty bans military operations there and relies on on-site inspections. Nothing in these findings points to a city or a settlement.

Verified facts

  1. Verified fact

    The Antarctic ice sheet covers 98% of the continent, about 14 million square kilometres, with an average thickness of over 2 kilometres.

    • Antarctic ice sheet, Wikipedia
      The Antarctic ice sheet is a continental glacier covering 98% of the Antarctic continent, with an area of 14 million square kilometres (5.4 million square miles) and an average thickness of over 2 kilometres (1.2 mi).
  2. Verified fact

    Lake Vostok is the largest of Antarctica's 675 known subglacial lakes; it is more than 250 km long and lies beneath 3.7 to 4.2 km of ice.

  3. Verified fact

    The existence of Lake Vostok was confirmed in 1993 by laser altimetry, and on 5 February 2012 Russian scientists pierced the ice shield to the surface of the lake.

    • Lake Vostok, Wikipedia
      the final confirmation of the existence of the lake in 1993 by J. P. Ridley using ERS-1 laser altimetry.
  4. Verified fact

    A 2013 study of ice that froze onto the base of the ice sheet above Lake Vostok reported more than 3,500 unique traces of life, mostly bacteria and fungi, but contamination has long plagued reports of life from the Vostok ice cores and the lake water itself has not been sampled.

  5. Verified fact

    In January 2013 the WISSARD expedition sampled subglacial Lake Whillans for microbial life; the sediments held 3,914 bacterial species, and a NASA-funded mini-submarine filmed the lake floor after descending an 800-metre borehole.

    • Subglacial lake, Wikipedia
      In January 2013, the US-led Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) expedition measured and sampled Lake Whillans in West Antarctica for microbial life.
    • What Lies Beneath: NASA Antarctic Sub Goes Subglacial, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 28 February 2013
      A video camera on a NASA-designed-and-funded mini-submarine captured this view as it descended a 2,600-foot-deep (800-meter-deep) borehole to explore Antarctica's subglacial Lake Whillans.
  6. Verified fact

    A sediment core taken in 2017 near West Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier contains a forest soil from the Cretaceous, with roots, pollen and spores of a temperate rainforest that grew about 90 million years ago.

  7. Verified fact

    Antarctica is Earth's only continent without a native human population; about 5,000 people live at research stations in summer, and about 1,000 in winter.

    • Antarctic Treaty System, Wikipedia
      regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population.
    • Antarctica, Wikipedia
      During the summer months, about 5,000 people reside at research stations, a figure that drops to around 1,000 in the winter.
  8. Verified fact

    The Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959, prohibits nuclear testing, military operations and economic exploitation, and is monitored through on-site inspections.

    • Antarctic Treaty System, Wikipedia
      The treaty prohibits nuclear testing, military operations, economic exploitation, and the making of new territorial claims in Antarctica. It is monitored through on-site inspections.
Three-dimensional block of ice cut away to show a blue lake over rock, a drilling rig on top and a small map of Antarctica locating Lake Vostok.
An artist's cross-section of Lake Vostok, the largest known subglacial lake in Antarctica, beneath 2.2 miles of ice (Nicolle Rager-Fuller, US National Science Foundation). Nicolle Rager-Fuller / NSF · public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Play on YouTube (third-party content)
NASA/JPL video of the micro-submarine that explored subglacial Lake Whillans in 2013, showing the first view of the lake floor beneath 800 m of Antarctic ice.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory