Living it up below the ice sheet?From San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), private organization devoted to furthering the work of scientists and improving the effectiveness of science in the promotion of human welfare. A recent earthquake at the bottom of the world suggests that Antarctic ice might hide an active, heat-generating fault, reports Robin E. Bell of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is a world-class research institution specializing in the Earth sciences and is part of Columbia University. The current director of Lamont is G. Michael Purdy. in Palisades Palisades, cliffs along the west bank of the Hudson River, NE N.J. and SE N.Y., extending from N of Jersey City, N.J., to the vicinity of Piermont, N.Y., with a general altitude of from 350 ft to 550 ft (107–168 m). , N.Y. The energy released at such a geologic boundary could power hot springs feeding into subsurface lakes, enabling microbial microbial pertaining to or emanating from a microbe. microbial digestion the breakdown of organic material, especially feedstuffs, by microbial organisms. life to flourish miles beneath the top of the ice sheet, she speculates. The epicenter of the mild Jan. 5 earthquake lines up with the centers of three older quakes near Lake Vostok Lake Vostok (Russian: восток, "east") is the largest of more than 140 subglacial lakes found under the surface of Earth's southern-most continent— Antarctica. . A body of water about the size of Lake Ontario, Lake Vostok's been under 2 miles of ice for perhaps millions of years. Data from the previous three quakes weren't reliable enough to convince scientists that a well-defined fault existed, says Bell, who recently completed 3 years of radar observations through the ice. The location of the new quake, however, greatly strengthens the case for a real geologic boundary, she says. The lake region is "not a piece of quiet old crust," she says. On another front, Bell's radar results show that Lake Vostok has many coves and beaches at different depths, making it more complex than researchers previously thought. The newly found features complicate interactions between the lake and ice flowing over and around it, she says. Scientists have found living microbes in the ice above Lake Vostok's surface, but they haven't yet sampled the lake itself, notes John C. Priscu of Montana State University Montana State University, at Bozeman; land-grant; coeducational; chartered 1893. It is primarily a technical institution specializing in agriculture, engineering, and applied sciences. The Museum of the Rockies is there. in Bozeman (SN: 10/9/99, p. 230). Within the next decade, he hopes to test Vostok and other Antarctic lakes for signs of life. So far, however, concerns about contaminating the lake with aboveground microbes have prevented researchers from drilling into it. Although researchers have no direct evidence of any lake life yet, Priscu speculates that Vostok could house complex creatures such as the tubeworms found neat hydrothermal vents in the Atlantic and Pacific seafloors. --J.G |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion