Researchers were working off the coast of Antarctica when it happened: A gigantic iceberg about 30 kilometres long cracked off the ice sheet on January 13, revealing a swath of ocean that had not seen daylight in decades.
The team aboard a research vessel called the Falkor (too) decided to search the seafloor under the freshly exposed ocean. No human had ever explored the deep sea there before.
A stalk of deep-sea coral is documented 1200 metres deep at an area of the seabed that was very recently covered by the George VI Ice Shelf, a floating glacier in Antarctica.Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
“It’s the kind of event that, when it happens, you leave whatever you’re doing,” said Patricia Esquete, the expedition’s chief scientist.
But expectations weren’t high. The scientists didn’t think much life could thrive under such a thick blanket of ice.
Yet what the team members found under the iceberg surprised them: giant sea spiders, octopuses, ice fish, corals and sponges, including a vase-shaped one that may be hundreds of years old. In total, the researchers believe they will be able to identify dozens of new species from the expedition.
The remnants of a massive iceberg calving event are seen from Research Vessel Falkor (too).Credit: Alex Ingle / Schmidt Ocean Institute
“We were really surprised and amazed by the diverse ecosystems and the rich ecosystems we found down there,” said Esquete, a researcher at the University of Aveiro in Portugal.
The discovery, announced on Thursday, not only shows how life finds a way into nearly every corner of the world – including entombed under floating glaciers – but also provides a crucial baseline for understanding how deep-sea life may change on a warming planet.
“They were really serendipitously in the right place at the right time to be right there and to see an ecosystem,” said Jyotika Virmani, head of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, a nonprofit that facilitated the research.
