Discovery made beneath Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys

Using a novel, helicopter-borne sensor to penetrate the surface of large swathes of terrain, a team of researchers supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) has gathered compelling evidence that beneath Antarctica's ice-free McMurdo Dry Valleys lies a salty aquifer that may support previously unknown microbial ecosystems and retain evidence of ancient climate change. An airborne electromagnetic (AEM) sensor, called SkyTEM, mounted to the helicopter, allowed the team to discover that brines--salty