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A subterranean world of interconnected salty lakes that may support microbial life has been detected beneath one of Antarctica's most barren and lifeless regions.

The aquifer network extends to a depth of up to 1,148ft (350 metres) below the McMurdo Dry Valleys - the coldest and driest desert on Earth.

The find could help to shed light on how the icy region is coping with climate change, and could even hint at how life could survive on Mars.

The aquifer network extends to a depth of up to 1,148ft (350 metres) below the McMurdo Dry Valleys, the coldest and driest desert on Earth. The map above shows the major glaciers and the areas surveyed by the plane in yellow, with the terrain studied marked in red

A hoop-like electromagnetic sensor suspended beneath a helicopter was used to map the hidden subsurface.

Measurements of electrical resistivity revealed extensive connected bodies of liquid salty water deep beneath the region's glaciers and lakes.

It's the first time the frozen lakes populating the Dry Valleys' surface have been found to be connected by a subterranean groundwater network. 

But further evidence is needed to be certain of its existence.

The subterranean world of interconnected salty lakes that may support microbial life has been detected beneath one of Antarctica's most barren and lifeless regions, using a hoop-like electromagnetic sensor suspended beneath a helicopter (pictured)

Researcher Dr Jill Mikucki said the findings 'may change the way people think about the coastal margins of Antarctica.' The equipment used to map the area is shown above

The network stretches from the coast for a distance of at least 7.5 miles (12 km) inland.

US lead researcher Dr Jill Mikucki, from the University of Tennessee, said: 'It may change the way people think about the coastal margins of Antarctica.

'We know there is significant saturated sediment below the surface that is likely seeping into the ocean and affecting the productivity of things that feed ocean food webs.

'It lends to the understanding of the flow of nutrients and how that might affect ecosystem health.' 

The findings, which are published in the journal Nature Communications, may shed light on how Antarctica has responded to climate change, the researchers say. This image shows a portion of Taylor Glacier including Blood Falls, which is coloured orange because of the oxidisation of subglacial brine

This image shows the extent of the underground network beneath Taylor Glacier in the Dry Valleys, which represents the nearest thing on Earth to a Martian environment. This gives experts hope the find may help them understand whether similar conditions could exist elsewhere in the solar system, especially on Mars

The findings, which are published in the journal Nature Communications, may shed light on how Antarctica has responded to climate change.

They may even help scientists understand whether similar conditions could exist elsewhere in the solar system, especially beneath the surface of Mars.

Cold and vegetation free, the Dry Valleys represent the nearest thing on Earth to a Martian environment.

Evidence suggests that the salty groundwater exists at below-freezing temperatures, within the range tolerated by microbial life.

A strange feature in the region, called Blood Falls, which is salty, slushy, red ooze that emerges from the boundary between Taylor Glacier and Lake Bonney, has previously been shown to contain a diverse microbial community.

This hinted to experts that a deeper brine ecosystem could lie beneath the ice.

The McMurdo Dry Valleys, situated along the Ross Sea coastline and discovered by polar explorer Robert Scott in 1903, is the largest region in Antarctica not covered by an ice sheet.

It consists of an arid expanse of mostly dirt, small rocks and large boulders, dotted with a few frozen lakes.

Co-author of the study, Professor Ross Virginia, from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, said: 'This fantastic new view beneath the surface will help us sort out competing ideas about how the McMurdo Dry Valleys have changed with time and how this history influences what we see today.'

The McMurdo Dry Valleys (marked on the map) - the largest ice-free region in Antarctica - is a rather alien landscape, populated by glaciers, isolated lakes and frozen soils

One particularly strange feature of the cold region is Blood Falls - a salty, slushy, red ooze that emerges from the boundary between Taylor Glacier and Lake Bonney (pictured left) which gave scientists the idea that a briney network lay beneath the ice. An image of the survey is shown right