Scientists Reveal Their Strangest Antarctic Discoveries Yet

no place continues to provide such mystery as the frozen intimidating Antarctic sitting down at the South Pole far out of reach from the general population Antarctica plays host to some of the most bizarre feats of mother nature that we've ever seen things change color animals become abnormally gigantic and bubbling hot lava appears in places where it definitely shouldn't so what exactly is hiding down there in the bitter cold time to find out earlier in 2019 scientists discovered something rather rare bringing a whole new meaning to out of this world it's a croissant shaped speck of Stardust without advanced microscopes you won't be able to see it though why because it's tiny like 125 thousandth of an inch kind of tiny this relic of an ancient star is perceived to have come from a nova explosion and was found hidden within a meteorite that hit Antarctica supposedly this blue and red speck named LAPD 149 is older than our very own Sun it has extremely high levels of a very specific form of carbon called carbon 13 nothing on this earth has shown such high levels next up is one where Mother Nature has really outdone herself scientists have come across a stunningly unique lake of sizzling hot lava it sits in the middle of the mostly unexplored mount michel volcano the snow-covered lake is only the eighth of its kind ever seen a find made all the more astounding by the fact that it exists in sub-zero temperatures the rare lava lake boasts scalding temperatures of between 1812 and 2334 degrees Fahrenheit it's not just recent either the lava has been bubbling away since at least 2003 but why how come on the other 15 hundred or so volcanoes on earth lava from deep within the earth dries into rock apparently it's because the heat from eruptions of volcanic gases including sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide can keep some lava lakes at a high enough temperature to keep the lava from solidifying this folks is Lake Vostok the third largest lake by volume in the world and the continents biggest sub glacial lake that was discovered by Russian scientists back in 2012 it's more than 2 miles deep you know we've mentioned lake vostok in another video about the creepy mysteries of Antarctica the links in the description check it out this time though we're diving further into the lake just like the Russian research team did that found samples from the water containing are you ready for this alien life or at the least types of bacteria that were completely unlike anything that scientists had cataloged before how can a flowing lake exist with ice surrounding it in all directions well the reason is because of the pressure applied by said surrounding ice with thousands of Giga tons of ice on top of it Vostok becomes immune to freezing that's weird a according to Antarctic glaciers calm a whopping 379 lakes exist in Antarctica beneath the surface scientists have also come across some rather out-of-the-ordinary icebergs these green hunks of ice sit near the amory ice shelf on East Antarctica we've been studying them for decades now however there's a new theory at the forefront all about one mineral iron you see the ice that sits in rock at the bottom of the amory ice shelf has 500 times more iron than the ice that sits above it at the surface so when parts of that iron heavy ice break away and float into the ocean the iron oxidizes as it makes contact with seawater it's either that or a Costco sized tub of green food dye let's turn our attention to the Ross Ice Shelf this seemingly endless block of ice covers a massive 185 thousand square miles and pretty close to the size of the entire country of Spain it's not just wide either it's mighty thick over a thousand feet thick in some areas that size makes it all the more amazing that scientists were able to uncover a ginormous ancient rocky structure hidden deep beneath the surface this suppose that big old rock is what's saving us from being eternally engulfed by the oceans the ancient rock acts as a barrier between the Ross Ice Shelf and the seawater which stops the ice from melting or at least slows it so far it's thought that the Ross Ice Shelf has halted the drifting of about 20% of Antarctica's ice into the ocean what that means is that it stopped the sea-level rising by around 11 point 6 meters or 38 feet to put that in perspective Shanghai San Francisco and Amsterdam among others would flood with the rise of that extent if all of the Antarctic ice melted that's another nightmare entirely sea levels around the world would rise about 61 meters not a pretty thought right we know what the ancient rock structure does but scientists have been baffled by this next icy installation take a look strange isn't it this bizarre collection viewable on Google Earth is about 200 miles away from the Norwegian research station and consists of a 2 kilometer long series of 22 head-scratching structures the fascinating thing is that they were completely hidden until 2001 when the ice in the area started to melt conspiracy theorists have had a field day but we'll wait until science has some real answers these are the blood Falls at Taylor glacier initially discovered in 1911 at first we thought the hellish color was the result of algae in the water but as science progressed over the ages we've adopted a new theory oxidation when the iron from beneath comes in contact with the flowing salt water at the surface as well as with oxygen voila it turns blood red just like rust scientists are still scratching their heads at our next kanoon drum the giant gaping holes in the ice these massive crevasses have been popping up ever since the 1970s or at least that's as far back as we know but in 2016 and 2017 a pair of enormous new ones appeared over in the Weddell Sea which is right here one of them measured 115 thousand and 97 square miles that's almost exactly the same size as the state of Arizona known in the science world as polynyas these giant holes are thought to be the result of storms and salt although there's still more research to be done with the help of floating robots and believe it or not tech equipped seals research teams noticed that quick climate variations from particularly nasty weather disrupted the ice that's all related to how ocean layers work typically the different saline levels sit vertically as colder saltier water sinks to the bottom of the ocean because of a higher density so when winds are violent enough to disrupt currents and the normal layers it can make the oceans surface unnaturally salty melting the ice at the top if these giant holes keep popping up and the ice keeps melting watch out because sea levels will rise day after tomorrow style you didn't think we'd get through an Antarctica video without mentioning penguins did you not penguins as we know them though no sir this is what scientists are calling a super colony comprising of 1.5 million Adelaide Penguins these elusive seabirds have managed to defy humans for close to 3,000 years miraculously staying completely hidden they're not just chillin and hammocks and kickin back though they're facing danger every day surrounded by fields of treacherous sea ice appropriately named the danger Islands much further below the surface however there's an entirely new species that we've just found thought to be an obscure type of sea cucumber this puzzling bizarre and downright weird looking specimen was scooped up in mid 2019 at a staggering 3,500 metres 11 and a half thousand feet below sea level we don't know what this creature is but we do know that it can handle water pressure that is 300 times more powerful than what we deal with here on land if you thought that was the only strange creature swimming around in the Antarctic then think again the region is home to countless questionable sometimes frightening animals take the sea pig for example this aesthetically challenging specimen is found in the deepest darkest muddy depths of the Ross Sea crawling around as far as 3.7 miles below the surface it's fair to say that the sea pig won't be winning any best-dressed awards anytime soon perhaps an animal named after former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff would though this is the Hoff crab which was recently discovered on a hydrothermal vent system in Antarctica which is like a volcano only under water considering that this particular species of crab was exclusively found near steamy vents 1.5 miles or 2.5 kilometers deep it has been described as potentially the densest population of animals ever found next up is the so called spring tail these little dudes have a superpower the ultimate antifreeze amazingly they can survive being frozen solid and defrosted again and again and then just go about their business as usual oh and even though they're only one or two millimeters long springtails are actually the largest land animal in antarctica we say land animal because technically the seagoing types like seals and penguins are not considered land animals then we've got the glass sponge another strange creature mostly endemic to the Antarctic these little silica life-forms have been touted as being sort of like a living underwater skyscraper for everything else to grow on very able to provide housing for hundreds of other species don't pick them up though these sneaky Devils have tiny needle-like parts that can get stuck in your skin ouch so there's clearly a bunch of strange things swimming around in our oceans the biggest of them all of course are whales have you ever wondered what would happen if one of them were to swallow you whole we'll check out our video about it or how about how scientists proved that the Megalodon is actually extinct don't forget to subscribe see you next time

Channel: TheRichest

Views: 1,189,615

Rating: 4.8081126 out of 5

Keywords: Antarctica, ice shelf, ice wall, antarctic, meteorite, underwater lake, aliens, mystery, scientist, discovered, solved, found, space, richest, the richest, google earth

Id: X7IHXhbEX9o

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 17 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/RocketsledCanada]

Oh those Norwegians

[u/chicompj]

Great share!