Life thrived below solid ice shelf

An area of Antarctic seafloor that until recently was covered by thick, floating ice is host to a several-millennia-old ecosystem apparently based on chemical nourishment, not sunshine, according to a recent underwater survey of the area.

More than 60 percent of the Larsen B ice shelf disintegrated and drifted away early in 2002 (SN: 3/30/02, p.