Detecting intact bacteria under Arctic ice 50,000 years

Scientists have found proliferation of microbial communities thriving in seawater pockets beneath the Arctic tundra of 6 meters.

Nearly 1/4 of the Northern hemisphere of the Earth freezes all year round. This perpetual frozen land consists of soil, rock and sand connected by ice. Sometimes, the permafrost layer has "locked" bacteria and virus bags for hundreds of thousands of years.

Ice in Alaska.(Photo: New York Times).

According to Business Insider, recently, Washington University researchers have taken a new approach in this effort. They studied bags under the ice surface, where sediment mixed with seawater.

Bags under the Arctic tundra are called cryopeg and some bags remain intact for 50,000 years. Some bags are where viral groups thrive.

The oceanographer Zachary Cooper said: 'We studied very ancient seawater locked in permafrost for 50,000 years to see how these bacteria have grown over time.'

A Washington University research area near Utqiagvik, Alaska.(Photo: University of Washington).

In cryopegs, salty water is so impossible to freeze even at temperatures below 0. To reach one of these underground bags, Mr. Cooper and his colleagues drilled more than 6 meters into frozen land near Utqiaġvik. , Alaska, USA.

They presented an analysis of the DNA of the bacteria they discovered there during a workshop last month. This analysis surprised researchers to discover that these isolated bacteria are growing. Such extreme conditions often cause bacteria to stop working.

The main bacteria they found in seawater were marinobacter, a common marine bacterium.

Even though it is in the dark, buried under permafrost is long but its origin is from the marine environment. This suggests that marinobacter can survive even when locked into a salty seawater bag.

The density of these bacteria surprised researchers because they proliferate, developing with the virus.

To access these saline bags, the researchers had to climb down the 3m long ladder below the ice surface, then crawl through a tunnel drilled below. The tunnel is only wide enough for one person and not high enough to stand.

Zachary Cooper climbed down the ladder to the tunnel leading to a seawater bag in 2018. (Photo: Washington University).

They then drill into the tunnel floor to reach the liquid in the cryopegs. When it is possible to analyze samples from there, they find the country has a lot of tiny life forms.

These unchanging conditions and temperatures below zero make these permafrost areas similar to frosty conditions on other planets. So scientists are studying living and growing bacteria there to learn more about the type of alien life that we can detect somewhere in the solar system.

The team's hope is to be able to find clues about the kind of creature that humans can find on Mars or other planets.

Mars may have had an ocean. Other moons in the solar system also have liquid water.

Worlds with other oceans include Saturn's Titan and Enceladus cold moons and Jupiter's Europa and Ganymede moons.

Titan is the main research candidate to find alien life. Titan is Saturn's largest moon and the second largest moon in the solar system.

Researching on Earth's microbes in semi-freeze environments can provide information for future space exploration missions, helping people know what kind of life to look for and how to find it.