SCHMIDT OCEAN ORG : THRIVING ECOSYSTEM ON DETACHED ICEBERG
Excerpt: An international team on board Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too) working in the Bellingshausen Sea rapidly pivoted their research plans to study an area that was, until last month, covered by ice. On January 13, 2025, an iceberg the size of Chicago, named A-84, broke away from the George VI Ice Shelf, one of the massive floating glaciers attached to the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet. The team reached the newly exposed seafloor on January 25 and became the first to investigate an area that had never before been accessible to humans.
SEE THE PICTURES!
A large sponge, a cluster of anemones, and other life is seen nearly 230 meters deep at an area of the seabed that was very recently covered by the George VI Ice Shelf, a floating glacier in Antarctica. Sponges can grow very slowly, sometimes less than two centimeters a year. Therefore, the size of this specimen suggests this community has been active for decades, perhaps even hundreds of years.
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