Antarctic subglacial aquatic environments

From microbes on deep-sea hydrothermal vents, with temperatures pushing 500°C, to bacteria in the highly alkaline Mono Lake in California, the link between water and life on Earth has so far been infallible. Yet one frontier in terrestrial biology remains untested. First discovered in 1968, Antarctic subglacial lakes have the potential to validate or overthrow scientific perceptions of the hardiness of life. In the AGU monograph Antarctic Subglacial Aquatic Environments, editors Martin J. Siegert, Mahlon C. Kennicutt II, and Robert A. Bindschadler recount how the discovery of water beneath 3 kilometers of ice at the (now retired) Russian Sovetskaya research station led, over 4 decades, to our appreciation of 387 such lakes distributed widely about the Antarctic continent. They also explore the details of future missions under the ice. In this interview, Siegert talks to Eos.