When drilling ice mounds, the so-called blisters, on the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic, scientists found fountains of carbonating brine. The discovery may expand fundamental knowledge about the behavior of water in the permafrost zone, scientificrussia.ru reports.
The archipelago of Severnaya Zemlya is characterized by a typically Arctic climate. The average annual temperature here fluctuates at around -14 ° C, the thickness of the permafrost layer exceeds several hundred meters, the base of glaciers is frozen.
But, as the work of scientists from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in the area of the Cape Baranova Ice Base hospital has shown, liquid water is able to withstand freezing even in such extremely cold conditions.
The researchers found blisters not only in the estuaries of rivers themselves, but also at a ten-kilometer distance from them, where the factor of marine influence is definitely excluded.
The study of blisters will also open up new possibilities for the search for life in extreme conditions, for example on Mars.
In addition, given the peculiarities of the habitat, microorganisms from blisters may contain enzymes for the food and cosmetics industries. Water and ice samples have now been sent for crystallographic, chemical and isotopic analyses.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
