A half a mile below the surface of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, in a lake that hasn’t been touched by sunshine or wind in millions of years, life goes on. A large US expedition called WISSARD, led by a professor at Montana State University, has unearthed a thriving ecosystem of micro-organisms after drilling through the thick ice to reach Subglacial Lake Whillans in January of 2013...The Archaea ("ancient life") are very simple, very ancient bacteria-like organisms. Frequently they use unusual metabolic pathways as sources of energy.
Many of the micro-organisms found are single-celled organisms, called Archaea, that survive by converting ammonium and methane into energy in a harsh environment similar to those found elsewhere in our solar system, such as on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Since this lake has not seen light for millions of years, this entire ecosystem cannot be dependent on light energy like most of earth's life.
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