Latest McMurdo Dry Valleys Stories
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Several bodies of water around the world are known for their salty content. Among the most well-known are the Great Salt Lake in Utah and the Dead Sea. But these bodies of water pale in comparison to Don Juan Pond in Antarctica, known as the saltiest body of water on Earth. The pond, situated in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of the harsh, icy continent, keeps from freezing because of its salt-rich composition. But why this landlocked...
WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In one of the most remote lakes of Antarctica, nearly 65 feet beneath the icy surface, scientists from NASA, the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nev., the University of Illinois at Chicago, and nine other institutions, have uncovered a community of bacteria. This discovery of life existing in one of Earth's darkest, saltiest and coldest habitats is significant because it helps increase our limited knowledge of how life can...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A pioneering new study, which included scientists from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and Michigan State University among others, has revealed for the first time a viable community of bacteria that survives and ekes out a living in a dark, salty and subfreezing environment. This community is beneath over 65 feet of ice in one of Antarctica's most isolated lakes; Lake Vida. The...
NSF partners with international team to gather new information on hidden environments and past climate conditions in Antarctica National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded researchers have successfully tested equipment to map the hidden distribution of groundwater and ice in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region for the first time in Antarctica. The mapping technique, an airborne electrical resistivity instrument, will enable researchers to study microbial ecosystems in sub-glacial environments....
The frigid McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica are a cold, polar desert, yet the sandy soils there are frequently dotted with moist patches in the spring despite a lack of snowmelt and no possibility of rain. A new study, led by an Oregon State University geologist, has found that that the salty soils in the region actually suck moisture out of the atmosphere, raising the possibility that such a process could take place on Mars or on other planets. The study, which was supported by the...
Sediments Frozen in Time Provide CluesFocusing on a controversial hypothesis that ice existed at the equator some 300 million years ago during the late Paleozoic Period, two University of Oklahoma researchers originated a project in search of clues to the Earth's climate system."The Paleozoic Period was a rare time in history," says Gerilyn Soreghan, OU professor of geology. "Broadly speaking, it was the last time our planet experienced the type of climate system we have today and in the...
A range of fossils found in sediments on the slopes of Mount Boreas have helped refine the timing of the climate shift that gave rise to Antarctica's remarkable Dry Valleys.The famously ice-free terrain enjoyed more benign, tundra-like conditions 14 million years ago - but then flipped to the intensely cold setting seen today.Ancient lake-living shrimp-like creatures can pinpoint the big switch, scientists say. They believe the ostracods would not have coped with a harsh, dry...
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Scientists have gathered more evidence that suggests flowing water on Mars -- by comparing images of the red planet to an otherworldly landscape on Earth.In recent years, scientists have examined images of several sites on Mars where water appears to have flowed to the surface and left behind a trail of sediment. Those sites closely resemble places where water flows today in the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica, the new study has found.The new study bolsters the notion that...
A robotic probe designed to draw an underwater three-dimensional map showing the biological and geochemical composition of an ice-bound Antarctica lake may prove to be the ideal tool to search for life on other planets or moons where ice is known to exist.Peter Doran, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the lead investigator in a three-year, $2.3 million dollar study funded by NASA to build the probe that will map Antarctica's...
Boulder -- An experiment in a dry Antarctic stream channel has shown that a carpet of freeze-dried microbes that lay dormant for two decades sprang to life one day after water was diverted into it, said a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher.The results showed the resilience of life in the harsh polar environment, where temperatures are below freezing for most of the year and glacial melt water flows for only five to 12 weeks annually, said Professor Diane McKnight of CU-Boulder's...
