Life under ice.Deep below a thick slab of floating ice off Antarctica, an astounding a·stound tr.v. a·stound·ed, a·stound·ing, a·stounds To astonish and bewilder. See Synonyms at surprise. [From Middle English astoned, past participle of astonen, community of creatures has surprised scientists who had expected to find nothing there. In December 2003, researchers drilled a hole through the Amery ice shelf The Amery Ice Shelf () is a broad ice shelf at the head of Prydz Bay between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast. It is part of Mac Robertson Land. in Antarctica. They picked a spot that was 100 kilometers (62 miles) from open ocean. And they had to dig through 480 meters (1,575 feet) of ice just to get to the ocean underneath. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Once the drill broke through, a camera took pictures of a patch of seafloor that spanned 2 square meters Noun 1. square meter - a centare is 1/100th of an are centare, square metre area unit, square measure - a system of units used to measure areas (22 square feet). No one expected to see much that far from open ocean. Scientists didn't think that currents under the ice were strong enough to deliver food and nutrients to support life in such an environment. Creatures that live in the ocean's depths often filter food out of the water or pick food off the seafloor. In the photographs, however, the team identified more than two dozen species of sponges, mollusks, sea urchins sea urchin, spherical-shaped echinoderm with movable spines covering the body. The body wall is a firm, globose shell, or test, made of fused skeletal plates and marked by regularly arranged tubercles to which the movable spines are attached. , and other invertebrates, including a sea snail. "These creatures are no different from those that live in open water at that depth," says Martin J. Riddle, a marine biologist marine biologist specialist in the biology of marine life. at the Australian Government Antarctic Division in Kingston, Tasmania Kingston is a suburb and region on the outskirts of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Nestled 15km south of the city between and around several hills, Kingston is the council seat of its wider municipality, the Kingborough Council, and today serves as the gateway between Hobart and the . [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A probe measured the currents under the shelf, which were strong enough to deliver tiny creatures called microplankton to the area. Microplankton are at the bottom of the food chain. In the future, the scientists say, paleontologists shouldn't rule out the possibility that ancient communities of sea life were once covered with ice, too. It's a cold but bustling world down there.--E. Sohn |
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