An iceberg the size of Chicago broke off the Antarctic Peninsula earlier this year, revealing a previously hidden ecosystem that humans had never seen before.
An international team of scientists had been working nearby on the Falkor, a research vessel in the Bellingshausen Sea, owned by the nonprofit Schmidt Ocean Institute. They were studying how ice-shelf systems have changed over time.
However, they decided to pause their activities and use a remotely operated vehicle to take advantage of the rare opportunity and investigate the 209-square-mile area of seafloor that had just opened up.
They did not expect to find much because it didn’t seem likely for many creatures to be able to survive so far beneath a thick crust of ice.
To their surprise, they saw critters of all shapes and sizes, from ancient sponges and corals to snails, worms, sea spiders, icefish, octopuses, and a rare giant phantom jellyfish. The team is still analyzing their discoveries, but they think they will identify multiple new species.
On January 13, the iceberg, named A-84, broke off from the southern end of the George VI Ice Shelf. It measured 19 miles long by 11 miles wide.
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, coastal ocean currents quickly carried A-84 away, causing it to bounce off parts of the Antarctic coastline.
Ever since then, scientists have been using satellite imagery to track the movements of the iceberg, which is apparently shaped like a potato.
The group that went to explore the newly exposed area consisted of researchers from Portugal, Chile, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand. They reached the area on January 25.
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They used a remotely operated underwater vehicle known as SuBastian and spent eight days taking photos and videos of the seafloor at depths of up to 4,265 feet. They also collected biological and geological samples, including a long gravity core full of sediment layers.
It is the first time that a remotely operated underwater vehicle has been used to explore the seafloor beneath an ice shelf. It is also the first time that this specific area has been investigated.
“Ice shelves are among the most hostile and most remote environments on the planet, and they’re extremely difficult to get underneath,” said Aleksandr Montelli, the co-leader of the expedition and a geophysicist and glaciologist at University College London.
The researchers hope to learn more about the mechanisms that allow deep-sea creatures to thrive in this unique environment.
In other parts of the deep ocean, nutrients from the surface sink to the seafloor and nourish the animals there. But under this 500-foot-thick layer of ice, no surface nutrients could have existed.
Ocean currents or meltwater may be providing the region with nutrients, but the researchers aren’t sure yet. In the future, they also want to return to the site to measure changes in the ecosystem.
You can see photos here.
