Earth  ID: 3688

Shrimp-Like Creature Discovered at Windless Bight, Antarctica - 600 Feet Beneath Ice Sheet

Visualizations by Lori Perkins Released on March 17, 2010
At a depth of 600 feet beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet, a small shrimp-like creature managed to brighten up an otherwise gray polar day in late November 2009. This critter is a three-inch long Lyssianasid amphipod found beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, about 12.5 miles away from open water in the region called Windless Bight. NASA scientists were using a borehole camera to look back up towards the ice surface when they spotted this pinkish-orange creature swimming beneath the ice.
Download Options
Lyssianasid amphipod found under the ice at the Windless Bight. Windless Bight is 15.5 miles to the northeast of McMurdo Station

and 14.3 miles south of Mount Erebus.

Download Options
This is the same image without labels. Note there is no open water in view. The closest open water is 12.5 miles away from Windless Bight.
Download Options
A wider view of the Windless Bight region where the surprise discovery was made.
Download Options
The same image as above without labels.

Visualization Credits

Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Bob Bindschadler (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Alberto Behar (NASA/JPL CalTech): Scientist
Sarah DeWitt (NASA/GSFC): Writer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Science Paper:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/antarctic-shrimp.html

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3688

Mission:
Landsat

Data Used:
Landsat-7/ETM+/Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica also referred to as: LIMA
Mosaic - NASA/GSFC, British Antarctic Survey, USGS EROS Data Center - 12/25/1999 and 12/31/2001
Mosaicing to avoid clouds produced a high quality, nearly cloud-free benchmark data set of Antarctica for the International Polar Year from images collected primarily during 1999-2003.
view all stories where this data set is used
Landsat-7/ETM+/Band Combination 3, 2, 1
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of these series:
Antarctica
Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Glaciers/Ice Sheets
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Glaciers/Ice Sheets >> Glacier Elevation/Ice Sheet Elevation
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Cryosphere >> Glaciers/Ice Sheets >> Glacier Topography/Ice Sheet Topography
GCMD >> Location >> Antarctica
SVS >> For Educators
SVS >> Oceanic Food Web
SVS >> Scavenger
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0

Places you might have seen this:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/15/tech/main6300308.shtml http://www.itwire.com/science-news/biology/37644-nasa-surprised-shrimp-swimming-underantarctic-ice http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100315/ap_on_sc/us_sci_antarctica_sea_life