From here to the south pole, 1,000 miles further inland... conditions become even more hostile for life.
从这里到南极，往内陆深入一千英里，生存环境变得更加严酷。
Winds driving over the east antarctic ice sheet can reach speeds of up to 200 miles an hour.
在南极东部冰原上呼啸的风最高可达时速两百英里。
As these Gale-force winds descend from the ice sheet, they pick up both speed and warmth.
这些凛冽狂风从冰原降下时，不但速度提高，温度也会上升。
They create the most arid conditions on earth.
形成地球上最贫瘠的环境。
These aren't snowdrifts. They're sand dunes.
这些不是雪堆。而是沙丘。
Some of these so-called dry valleys have not felt rain in over a million years.
这些所谓的“干谷”，有部分已经超过一百万年没有降雨。
Carved by the wind, strange monuments up to four metres tall stand on the desolate valley floor.
由风所雕凿，高达四米的奇特纪念碑矗立在荒凉的谷地。
The only life form... a mummified crabeater seal that mysteriously strayed here, possibly thousands of years ago.
唯一的生命型态，是已经风干成尸的食蟹海豹，有可能是数千年前离奇流落至此。
But if you look hard enough... life can be found in Antarctica's interior.
可是只要仔细留意，南极洲腹地还是能够找到生命。
Hidden in the mountains of eastern Antarctica, lake untersee.
隐藏在南极洲东部群山之间，温特塞湖。
A little over ten years ago, scientists dived beneath its frozen surface.
十多年前，科学家潜入结冰的湖面之下。

And made a discovery that would change our perception of the possibility of alien life.
发现了一件事，可能会改变我们对于外星生命的看法。
Lying on its iakebed are living structures found nowhere else on earth.
躺在湖床之上的是地球上绝无仅有的活构造。
Giant stromatolites... standing half a metre tall.
巨大的层石藻，高度有半米。
Their existence down here provides an extraordinary insight into how life on our planet might have evolved.
存在于湖底的它们，对于地球生命可能的演进过程提供了非凡洞见。
These living structures have been built over thousands of years by arguably the most important microorganism on earth.
数千年来堆栈出这些活构造的，可能算是地球上最重要的微生物。
Cyanobacteria. The very first living organisms to have produced oxygen.
蓝绿藻。最早出现能产生氧气的微生物。
Without them, earth would have remained uninhabitable for higher life forms.
若没有它们，地球就仍然无法让高等生命存在。
If the building blocks for life can be found here, in the most hostile place on earth,
如果在这个地球上最险恶的环境能够找到生命的基础材料，
surely life could exist in the ice-covered lakes of distant planets.
想必生命就可能存在于遥远星球的冰冻湖水中。