In January 2025 an iceberg five times the size of Paris, France calved (broke off) from the George VI Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The chunk of ice that calved spanned 510 square kilometers (197 square miles).
A team of researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute in California, U.S. was near the massive iceberg when it calved. This gave the researchers a rare chance to explore a place humans have never seen before.
The research team used a remotely operated vehicle called ROV SuBastian to explore the seafloor over eight days. The remote vehicle reached depths of up to 1,300 meters (4,265 feet).
The team did not expect to see much life on the seafloor, which had been under a sheet of ice 150 meters (492 feet) thick. The scientists thought food from the ocean’s surface would not reach the seafloor under the thick ice.
In deep-sea habitats with no ice, plankton and algae on the ocean surface create food by photosynthesis, converting light into sugars. This food slowly makes its way to the seafloor.
To their surprise, the scientists were excited to find a rich community of fish, coral, octopus, sea spiders, anemones, and sponges had been living under the ice. The sponges are likely hundreds of years old, which means that this ecological community has lived under the thick ice for a long time.
Some of the amazing life spotted on the seafloor, including an octopus, hydroid, squid eating a fish, sponges, and anemones. Images courtesy of ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
How did the ecological community survive under the ice without getting food from the ocean surface? The science team thinks maybe deep ocean currents delivered the nutrients that the animals underneath the ice needed to survive.
The team collected samples of the animals in the seafloor community, including fish, crustaceans (crabs and their relatives), and sea worms called polychaetes. The scientists think some of these species have never been seen by people or described by science before.
David Brown adapted this story for Mongabay Kids. It is based on an article by Bobby Bascomb, published on Mongabay News.
