Antarctic Lake Hodgson Shows Life: Microbes Buried In Mud Under Ice For Thousands Of Years Viable

The Antarctic lake Hodgson, a lake buried beneath ice, has surprising signs of life.

Reserachers found many types of organisms in mud pulled from the bottom of the ice-covered lake in Antarctica. Scientists are shocked to find out that in the middle of the frozen tundra, the lake has an astonishing amount of biodiversity.

Surprising new research shows that the Antarctic lake Hodgson teems with life. Many scientists thought that due to the extreme conditions, Lake Hodgson would be sterile-but the mud holds DNA several different microbes.

Researchers say that the findings may help them undersand how life thrives in the harshest, most extreme places on Earth-and even on other planets.

The sediment sample is a time capsule dating back almost a hundred thousand years.

Scientists drilled through ice to f the bottom of Lake Hodgson, which is on the Antarctic Peninsula and 305 feet (93 meters) deep.

The researchers, from the British Antarctic Survey and other institutions, say that

"It's the first time any subglacial lake sediment has been studied,".

Study author David Pearce of the University of Northumbria says they grew 2- cultures of microbes from the uppermost layer of the sediment.

This finding proves that there are "viable extremophiles", life that thrives in extreme environments, currently living in Lake Hodgson

The scientists also discovered fossilized fragments of DNA from several different types of microbes.

Today the Antarctic lake is covered by 10-13 feet of ice, but at one point, it was under over 1600 feet of ice. The samples studied were deposited when the lake was sealed under the ice.