A team of UK scientists is about to drill through three kilometres of Antarctic ice to reach a buried lake that has been sealed from the surface for hundreds of thousands of years. Subglacial Lake Ellsworth sits beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, one of more than 150 such lakes discovered in the past two decades. No one has ever directly sampled one. The core question is whether microbial life can survive in total darkness, under immense pressure, and with no input of fresh organic material from the surface. The lake’s sediments also hold a layered record of when the ice sheet advanced and retreated, which could reveal how stable West Antarctica has been during past warm periods. This is fundamental science with no immediate practical application. It asks what life requires at its most basic level, and how a major ice sheet behaves over geological time. If life is found, it would expand the known limits of Earth’s biosphere and sharpen the search for life on icy moons such as Europa and Enceladus. If the sediment record shows the ice sheet collapsed during previous interglacials, it would directly inform projections of future sea-level rise. The project has been in planning for four years and will serve as a benchmark for clean, environmentally responsible exploration of Antarctica.
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This project has two fundamental scientific aims: (1) to determine whether, and in what form, microbial life exists in Antarctic subglacial lakes, and (2) to determine the history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. To meet these aims, we will undertake the direct measurement and sampling of water and sediment within Subglacial Lake Ellsworth in West Antarctica. For over a decade, scientists have regarded subglacial lakes to be extreme yet viable habitats for microbial life. Additionally, sedimentary palaeoenvironment records are thought to exist on the floors of subglacial lakes, which would provide critical insights into the glacial history of Antarctica. Of the >150 known subglacial lakes, Lake Ellsworth stands out as an ideal candidate for exploration. Through a NERC-AFI award, glaciologists have shown the lake, beneath 3 km of ice, to be 10 km long, 2-3 km wide and 160 m deep, confirming it as an ideal deep-water lake for exploration. The deployment of heavy equipment has been shown to be possible at this location, based on several deep-field reconnaissance studies. This project will build, test and deploy all the equipment necessary to complete the experiment in a clean and environmentally responsible manner. Samples will be analysed and split at laboratories in the field and at Rothera Station, and then distributed to laboratories across the UK. This project, which has been in a planning stage for four years, will be a benchmark exercise in the exploration of Antarctica, will make profound scientific discoveries regarding life in extreme environments and West Antarctic Ice Sheet history, and will be of genuine interest to the public and media.
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