Planet Antarctica

 

When I watched BBC´s "Frozen Planet II", I assumed the stromatolites shown at the end of episode 4 were computer animated rather than real. However, it seems the film crew *did* dive in Lake Untersee, a lake in Antarctica with a permanent ice cover that may have persisted for 100,000 years. 

And under the ice they filmed the previously mentioned stromatolites, bizarre structures created by myriads of cyanobacteria (the organisms previously known as blue-green algae). Perhaps inevitably, scientists find these extremophiles very interesting...since they may suggest that life is possible at Mars or Europa! Go figure.

But sure, I also go quasi-religious when I watch stuff like this, although in my case BBC´s descent into this Hadean world (did you know there are literal *deserts* in Antarctica complete with sand dunes?) rather invoke feelings of the utterly ineffable grandeur of Shiva the Destroyer...