Digging deeper below Antarctica's Lake Vida
Monday, September 14, 2009 - 17:35
in Earth & Climate
Antarctica's Lake Vida, a geologic curiosity that is essentially an ice bottle of brine, is home to some of the oldest and coldest living organisms on Earth. Perpetually covered by more than 60 feet of ice, the brine below -- water that is five to seven times more salty than seawater -- has been found to be home to cryobiological microbes some 2,800 years old which were revived after a gradual thaw.