A truly out of the ordinary spectacle, which immortalizes an extraordinary glacial phenomenon: an expanse of "ice flowers" floating on the waters of the Arctic. Many microorganisms find their home on them. The very dense presence of bacteria in each flower makes it a temporary ecosystem very similar to that of a coral reef.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
A truly out of the ordinary spectacle, which immortalizes an extraordinary glacial phenomenon: an expanse of "ice flowers" floating on the waters of the Arctic.
This is what he saw last year Jeff Bowman, uno graduate student at University of Washington, together with its professor Jody Deming, during an expedition to the Arctic Ocean aimed at a multidisciplinary study that combined oceanography, microbiology, planetary sciences in the central Arctic Ocean.
The goal of the research, which is part of the Integrated Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) program, was precisely that study of "ice flowers", a strange phenomenon that occurs "due to surface ice imperfections" and is created in the presence of extreme temperatures far below freezing, close to -22 ° C, forming the extraordinary pointed structures that “blossom” like efflorescence of frozen filaments. But just touch them with your fingers or a ray of sunshine to dissolve them in many droplets of water.
On them many microorganisms find home. The very dense presence of bacteria in each flower makes it a temporary ecosystem very similar to that of a coral reef. Now, as reported on the Igert website, Bowman and Deming are building a facility in the laboratory that will allow them to grow artificial ice flowers to better study the phenomenon. And come to a better understanding of how life can be capable of survive in such extreme conditions also in other places of our infinite universe.
Roberta Ragni
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