Russian Drill Reaches Mysterious Antarctic Lake
Thursday, February 9th, 2012Feb. 9, 2012
Russian scientists announced on February 8 that they had drilled down to an Antarctic lake that has been sealed off by ice for millions of years. Lake Vostok, a freshwater lake about 600 miles (965 kilometers) from the South Pole, is covered by about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) of ice and snow. Scientists have been drilling at the site off and on for about 20 years. A Russian news source reported that the scientists had retrieved 10 ½ gallons (40 liters) of water, which they were taking back to Russia in sterile containers for testing.
The lake is believed to be about 14 million years old. The water in the lake cycles in and out through the ice very slowly. Because it has been isolated for so long, any life forms found there could be new to science. The oxygen level in the lake may be from 10 to 20 times as great as that in Earth’s atmosphere.
Controversy has surrounded the drilling operation. Some scientists argued that the Russians were not taking the proper precautions to ensure the lake was not contaminated with chemicals or bacteria during drilling operations. If such materials were to enter the lake, scientists could not be sure that any scientific findings were truly from the lake and not the result of contamination introduced from the surface. But the Russian news source said that drilling liquids had not entered the lake. They said, “The lake water, rising up to 40 meters [131 feet] due to under-pressure in the crack, pushed the drilling liquid back onto the surface.”
Antarctica E. R. Degginger
Antarctica has several hundred bodies of water buried beneath the ice. Lake Vostok, one of the largest, is roughly the size of Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes. Other attempts to reach these “subglacial” lakes are being planned. A team of British scientists and a team of American scientists were preparing to drill at different lakes in the next year.
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