Jill Mikucki, lead author of the research and a scientist of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at Harvard University, added that life below the glacier may help scientists answer questions about life on "Snowball Earth," the period when large ice sheets covered the Earth.

The project also shows the power of multi-disciplinary collaborations, she said. Techniques in biogeochemistry, microbiology and molecular biology and other novel tests were used to figure out how the ecosystem could survive without photosynthesis.

The ecosystem has the "potential to be a modern analog to what geochemistry and biogeochemistry was like millions of years ago," Mikucki continued.

Priscu said researchers discovered the bacteria while investigating Blood Falls, a curious blood-red feature that flows from Taylor Glacier. They learned that the falls are red because they draw water from an iron rich pool, then discovered bacteria in their samples. The most common bacteria in the pool is Thiomicrospira arctica.

The researchers can't drill down to the pool because the glacier is too thick and the pool is too far back from the glacier's nose, Priscu said.

The pool, possibly less than three miles across, is believed to be a remnant of an ancient ocean that was trapped at least 1.5 million years ago when Taylor Glacier moved over Lake Bonney.

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Editor:Yang Jie