Severe Antarctic weather slows Australian icebreaker bid to reach stranded ship

SYDNEY - Severe Antarctic weather was slowing an Australian icebreaker's bid to reach a Russian ship trapped in ice since Christmas eve with 74 people onboard, the Australian maritime rescue agency said on Monday.

The Aurora Australis was currently about 11 nautical miles (20 kms) from the stranded Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy, said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which is co-ordinating the rescue.

"The area is currently experiencing snow showers, resulting in poor visibility. The Aurora Australis is travelling slowly due to the conditions to ensure the safety of all on board," AMSA said in a statement.

AMSA had earlier expected the Aurora Australis to arrive at the scene Sunday evening.

"It is unknown at this time if or when the Aurora Australis will arrive near the Akademik Shokalskiy due to weather and ice conditions," the agency said.

The Russian ship left New Zealand on Nov. 28 on a private expedition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of an Antarctic journey led by famed Australian explorer Douglas Mawson.

It is now trapped some 100 nautical miles (185 km) east of French Antarctic station Dumont D'Urville and about 1,500 nautical miles (2,800 km) nautical miles south of Australia's southern island state of Tasmania.

The Akademik Shokalskiy's 74 passengers include scientists and tourists, many of them Australian, and what the Russian Foreign Ministry said were 22 Russian crew members.

Chris Turney, an Australian professor who helped organize the voyage on the Russian ship, posted photos of passengers on board, including one of a passenger and a penguin.

"Set up tent on top deck. All well. Aurora making good progress. Waiting game!" Turney said on his twitter on Monday morning.

Ice that has trapped the ship appeared to be cracking up, raising hopes for a rescue, Turney said earlier.

The Australian icebreaker was one of the three vessels sent to try and free the Russian ship.

A Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, has been halted by thick ice within sight of the ice-bound ship, while another French-flagged ship was no longer involved in the rescue.

The Chinese Snow Dragon would remain on standby until the Aurora Australis reaches the Russian ship, AMSA said earlier.

The Snow Dragon has a helicopter on board that can be used to rescue passengers if the Aurora Australis can not break through the ice, the agency said. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Russian scientists may have found new life under Antarctic ice

MOSCOW  - Russian scientists believe they have discovered new life forms sealed off for millions of years in a subglacial lake deep under the Antarctic ice, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday.

After more than a decade of stop-and-go drilling, Russia pierced through Antarctica's frozen crust last year and took back samples of water from a vast lake that has lain untouched for at least 14 million year.

Scientists say the icy darkness of Lake Vostok, under some 3,700 metres of ice, may provide a glimpse of the planet before the Ice Age and clues to life on other planets.

"After excluding all known contaminants, bacterial DNA was found that does not match any known species in world databases," Sergei Bulat of the St Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute told RIA.

"If it (the bacteria) had been found on Mars, then without a doubt we would have said there is life on Mars - but this is DNA from Earth," he said. "We are calling this life form unidentified or unclassified."

Scientists from the United States and Britain are close on Moscow's heels to probe what life may exist in one of the most extreme environments on Earth.

This year, a U.S. expedition said they had seen living cells under a microscope in field samples taken from the shallower subglacial Lake Whillans, but more study is needed to determine what kinds of bacteria they are and how they live.

A British effort to reach a third body, Lake Ellsworth, was called off in December because of problems drilling.

What life is found in the icy depths may provide the best answer yet to whether life can exist in the extreme conditions on Mars or Jupiter's moon Europa.

The Russian discovery came from analysing water that froze onto the end of the drill bit used to bore through to Vostok - the largest of a network of hundreds of lakes under the ice cap that acts like a blanket trapping the Earth's geothermal heat.

Bulat and other members of Russia's Antarctic mission could not be reached for comment to Reuters on Thursday.

But Bulat told RIA that scientists are waiting for more samples from the lake to confirm their discovery.

Because of the technology used to keep from polluting the pristine lake, Russia will only obtain clean water samples - uncontaminated by drilling fluid - for analysis later this year.

To answer concerns kerosene and anti-freeze from the borehole would seep into the lake, Russian engineers withdrew the drill to allow the water to percolate up into the borehole and freeze there, only returning this year to collect it.

But Bulat said the unknown microbes were found after separating out species of bacteria that are known to exist in the drilling fluid.

"When we tried to identify the DNA, it did not coincide with any of known species. It's degree of similarity was less than 86 percent," Bulat told RIA.

"That is practically zero when working with DNA. A level of 90 percent tells us the organism is unknown."

Frozen samples from deeper in the borehole collected during this year's Antarctic summer season in February are now being carried back by boat and are due in St Petersburg in May.

"If we again identify the same group of organism in that pure sample of water, then we can confidently say we have found new life on Earth," Bulat said.  — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com