Ariel Waldman

And people have mapped, of course, under ice lakes, subglacial lakes, river systems and things like that that are happening under the ice because you do get that ice rock interaction.

And so it is grinding on it.

But you get to also see that, you know, in any location that has a glacier, they really just carve the land as they go through.

How does that compare to Europa?

So with Europa and Enceladus, you know, icy moons in our solar system, you have a very thick icy shell and then you have a rocky core.

And the thing that's slightly different is it's suspected in Europa and Enceladus, there's an ocean between that ice and rock.

Now, it might not go around the full rocky core.

It might be like ocean in some parts and not in others.

But that's where you're getting a lot of interesting things.

So there are places in Antarctica where you get subglacial lakes.

So you get that sort of similar thing of like you've got rock, then you've got water, then you've got ice.

And all of the microorganisms that are able to survive under those layers of ice without sunlight or anything are getting their energy from the rocks.

So like from the sulfur or other chemicals in the rocks.

And that's how they're able to survive.

And in that way, Antarctica is really an analog for icy moons in our solar system because it has at least some distinct areas that are similar like that.

No, I haven't gone to the subglacial lakes.

That would be cool.

But the ones I study, thankfully, aren't that deep.

So some of the creatures I study, like tardigrades, will hike up a glacier.

And then at the top of the glacier, we'll drill into it about like