A National Science Foundation, known as the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project has made a remarkable discovery. 2500 feet below an Antarctic ice sheet, in a thin slice of water 10 meters deep that lies between the ice and the sea floor, they’ve found life. Most remarkably it was not simple bacteria or a single species but an ecosystem with a wide variety of animals.

The team had ventured to a remote area, 390 miles from the south pole and more than 600 miles from the nearest permanent research station to investigate the stability of the Whillans Ice Stream.

The glacier fed stream flows from the coast of antarctica to feed into the Ross Ice Shelf. Specifically the team had travelled to the grounding zone, a subglacial beach where the glacier makes the transition from resting on rock to resting on water.

Using a jet of hot water from a kilometer long Kevlar hose the team drilled trough the ice. Initially, they found less life than they were expecting. The water samples that the team began pulling up were clear and odorless, showing no sign of even bacterial life.

On January 15, eight days after the hole was drilled, they lowered a 1.5 meter long remotely operated vehicle (ROV) called Deep-SCINI down through the ice and that is when things changed.

In a void of dark water, separated from sunlight by 2500 feet of ice and providing only a 30 foot fusion between the ice and the sea floor, the ROV found fish. The first specimen was described by Scientific American as “bluish-brownish-pinkish, as long as a butter knife, its internal organs showing through its translucent body.”

Over the course of the day the ROV spotted 20 to 30 similar fish as well as two smaller types of fish, a large number of shrimp like crustaceans and other marine invertebrates.

It is not immediately clear what the energy source for the ecosystem is. For most of Earth’s environments the primary energy source is sunlight, which feeds plants, which feed everything else. In some extreme environments, such as deep sea vents, the primary energy source is chemicals and minerals released by the vents. The minerals feed microscopic organisms which in turn feed other, larger life forms.

In this case, sunlight is not a possibility which means that it must be fed by chemical energy. The source of that energy is not readily apparent however. Mud samples brought up from the sea floor did not reveal worms or other animals that would feed on waste from above. The team was, in fact, unable to find any life form that was not capable of moving which suggests that mobility is key in the hostile environment.

“We have to ask what they’re eating. Food is in short supply and any energy gained is hard-won. This is a tough place to live,” said Louisiana State University microbiologist Brent Christner.

The team now expects to take years to fully analyze the data and learn more about the unexpected ecosystem and the glacier that was their original research subject.

In addition to being a remarkable discovery in its own right, the find must provide a ray of hope to those hoping to find life on Mars, Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa and other cold and remote outposts in the solar system.