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Lake Vostok

rynner2

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Researchers Find Antarctic Lake Water Will Fizz Like A Soda
Water released from Lake Vostok, deep beneath the south polar ice sheet, could gush like a popped can of soda if not contained, opening the lake to possible contamination and posing a potential health hazard to NASA and university researchers.
A team of scientists that recently investigated the levels of dissolved gases in the remote Antarctic lake found the concentrations of gas in the lake water were much higher than expected, measuring 2.65 quarts (2.5 liters) of nitrogen and oxygen per 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of water. According to scientists, this high ratio of gases trapped under the ice will cause a gas-driven "fizz" when the water is released.

"Our research suggests that U.S. and Russian teams studying the lake should be careful when drilling because high gas concentrations could make the water unstable and potentially dangerous," said Dr. Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. McKay is lead author of a paper on the topic published in the July issue of the 'Geophysical Research Letters' journal.

"We need to consider the implications of the supercharged water very carefully before we enter this lake," said Dr. Peter Doran, a co-author and associate professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Lake Vostok is a rich research site for astrobiologists, because it is thought to contain microorganisms living under its thick ice cover, an environment that may be analogous to Jupiter's moon, Europa. Europa contains vast oceans trapped under a thick layer of ice. Russian teams are planning to drill into Lake Vostok's 2.48 mile (four kilometer) ice cover in the near future, and an international plan calls for sample return in less than a decade.

An important implication of this finding is that scientists expect oxygen levels in the lake water to be 50 times higher than the oxygen levels in ordinary freshwater lakes on Earth. "Lake Vostok is an extreme environment, one that is supersaturated with oxygen," noted McKay. "No other natural lake environment on Earth has this much oxygen."

The research also suggests that organisms living in Lake Vostok may have had to evolve special adaptions, such as high concentrations of protective enzymes, in order to survive the lake's oxygen-rich environment, the researchers say.

Such defense mechanisms may also protect life in Lake Vostok from oxygen radicals, the dangerous byproducts of oxygen breakdown that cause cell and DNA damage. This process may be similar to that of organisms that scientists theorize may once have lived on Europa, whose ice layer and atmosphere are thought to contain radiation-produced radicals and oxygen.

"We expect to find that the organisms in Lake Vostok are capable of overcoming very high oxygen stress," said co-author Dr. John Priscu, a geo-biologist at Montana State University in Bozeman. Priscu heads an international group of researchers that will deploy a remote observatory at Lake Vostok within three years and return samples within 10 years.

The team also determined the ratios of gases in the lake. The scientists discovered that the air-gas mixture there, besides dissolving in the water, also is trapped in a type of structure called a 'clathrate'.

In clathrate structures, gases are enclosed in an icy cage and look like packed snow. These structures form at the high pressure depths of Lake Vostok and would be unstable if brought to the surface.

Lake Vostok is located 2.48 miles (four kilometers) beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The lake, and more than 70 other lakes deep beneath the polar plateau, are part of a large, sub-glacial environment that has been isolated from the atmosphere since Antarctica became covered with ice more than 15 million years ago.

Scientists theorize that Lake Vostok probably existed before Antarctica became ice covered, and may contain evidence of conditions on the continent when the local climate was subtropical.
I'm not sure how much of a problem the gas pressure would be - I guess they're talking about fairly standard oil drilling rigs, which always have Blow-Out Preventers fitted. (This is why the oil 'gushers' seen in old films are now a thing of the past.)

But it will be interesting to see what is down there.
 
Published online: 09 July 2004; | doi:10.1038/news040705-9

Lake Vostok map forces exploration rethink

Jim Giles

Untouched Antarctic lake has two basins - and maybe two ecosystems.


Plans to drill into Lake Vostok, an underground Antarctic lake thought to have been isolated for 20 million years, could be revised after researchers revealed that it may contain two distinct ecosystems.

The first detailed map of Vostok's bed shows that the 240 km-long lake comprises two deep basins divided by a ridge1. If the ridge stops water flow between the basins, each could host different organisms, as research on Lake Bonney, another Antarctic lake with two basins, has shown.

The news, released last month, has now made researchers rethink their plans to enter the lake. Many believe that Lake Vostok's waters harbour unique life.

"We need to sample both basins," says microbiologist John Priscu of Montana State University in Bozeman, part of an international team working on plans to drill into Vostok. Priscu want to make two holes or survey the lake with an autonomous submarine, an idea that tallies with suggestions made by other experts. He plans to discuss the ideas when the team meets later this month.


Michael Studinger, an Earth scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, and his colleagues made the map by measuring the gravity above Vostok. The Earth's pull is weaker over deep water, because water has less than half the density of rock. By criss-crossing the lake in a plane - flying a total of 21,000 km - the team pieced together a map of the lakebed.

The work revealed Vostok's dimensions. Studinger estimates that the lake holds about 5,400 cubic kilometres of water - equivalent to 5% of the world's freshwater surface lakes. Lake Vostok has a similar area to Lake Superior, the largest of North America's Great Lakes, but is far deeper, in parts more than a kilometre deep.

Extreme environment

Collecting the readings was not easy. Studinger spent four weeks camped above the lake with the map-making team, at times in an unheated tent. "Only your nose can stick out of your sleeping bag," he recalls.

The temperatures, typically -30 to -40 ºC, are not the only thing that makes living at Vostok tough. The base is at 3,500 metres above sea level; oxygen levels are reduced even at lower altitudes in Antarctica. One research student developed altitude sickness, and was airlifted out by a Hercules plane equipped with skis, despatched from the nearby US McMurdo research base.


---------------------
References
Studinger M., Bell R. E., Tikku A. A. Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L12401 doi:10.1029/2004GL019801 (2004).

http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040705/full/040705-9.html

The paper:

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 31, L12401, doi:10.1029/2004GL019801, 2004

Estimating the depth and shape of subglacial Lake Vostok's water cavity from aerogravity data

Michael Studinger

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA



Robin E. Bell

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA



Anahita A. Tikku

Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan


Abstract

We use aerogravity data to estimate the water depth of subglacial Lake Vostok in East Antarctica. The inversion produces the first bathymetry map covering the entire lake. Lake Vostok consists of two sub-basins separated by a ridge with very shallow water depths. The deeper southern sub-basin is approximately double the spatial area of the smaller northern sub-basin. The close correlation between the pattern of basal melting and freezing and the bathymetric structure has important ramifications for the water circulation and the sediment deposition. We estimate the lake volume to be 5400 ± 1600 km3.

Received 24 February 2004; accepted 17 May 2004; published 19 June 2004.

Index Terms: 1219 Geodesy and Gravity: Local gravity anomalies and crustal structure; 1827 Hydrology: Glaciology (1863); 3010 Marine Geology and Geophysics: Gravity; 3260 Mathematical Geophysics: Inverse theory; 9310 Information Related to Geographic Region: Antarctica.

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2004/2004GL019801.shtml
 
Russia to resume Vostok drilling


Russian scientists have said they will resume drilling into Lake Vostok in the Antarctic, to within 100m of the waters that sit below its ice-cap.

Lake Vostok's waters may hold many new species as it is an ecosystem that has been sealed-off from the outside world for millions of years.

Scientists had previously drilled into the ice above the lake but had stopped well short of the water-ice interface.

Some have expressed concern that the new drilling may contaminate the lake.

Equipment overhaul

According to Valeri Lukin, chief of the forthcoming Russian Antarctic Expedition, Russia is going to continue deep drilling to sub-glacial Lake Vostok.

We got the permit only in the middle of last January, when the season was drawing to the end. This year, we've overhauled the drilling equipment and inspected the well. Now, it is fully ready for drilling operations to go on.

"We'll resume them during the 2005-2006 season under the programme of our expedition, and plan to work another 50m," Lukin said.

This will take the base of the well to within 100m of the water interface.

He added that current efforts to investigate the lake had revealed an island located in the central part of the lake.

Lukin said that the ultimate goal was to reach the water under the ice, which he believes will be done during the 2007-8 season.

"We hope it will happen in 2007," he remarked. "The lake's main mystery is that we'll for the first time extract what existed according to the entirely different laws of evolution several million years ago without contact with the present-day atmosphere," he added.

International concern

Deep ice drilling above the relic lake was suspended in the late 1990s when the well leading towards the unique sub-glacial water body reached 3,623m. Only 130m remains to go.

Lukin said that Russian specialists had created equipment capable of penetrating the lake without infecting it with modern microbes.

Many scientists believe that deepening the Russian drill hole by 50m will pose little risk of contaminating the lake as there will be a 100m buffer zone above the water.

But some researchers have expressed concern to the BBC News website about the cleanliness of using a hole that was drilled for purposes other than entering the lake.

Other scientists have told us that the Russian plans, although true to the letter of the Antarctic Treaty, demonstrate its weakness.

The Russians require no ratification of their plans to drill into Lake Vostok and are only obliged to file an Initial Environmental Evaluation (which they have done) followed by a Comprehensive Environmental Evaluation, which is pending.

When this is delivered, international scientists say they will express their reservations to their Russian colleagues.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4577627.stm
 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070605185640.htm


Source: Texas A&M University
Date: June 6, 2007

Study Of Underground Lakes In Antarctica Could Be Critical
Science Daily — The discovery of interconnected lakes beneath kilometers of ice in Antarctica could be one of the most important scientific finds in recent years, but proper procedures need to be established before investigation begins, says a Texas A&M University scientist who is a leader in the research efforts.


Scientists believe an aquatic system is buried beneath the Antarctica ice sheet. (Credit: Zina Deretsky / NSF) Mahlon "Chuck" Kennicutt II, professor of oceanography and director of the Sustainable Development Program in Texas A&M's Office of the Vice President for Research, says the National Science Foundation and 11 countries involved in the research and exploration are seeking agreement on how best to study these unique environments, which include at least 145 lakes under Antarctica's massive ice sheets. Several of the lakes are immense, and one, Lake Vostok, is similar in size to Lake Ontario, roughly 5,400 square miles, scientists note.

Participants in the project known as The Russian Antarctic Expedition have announced their intentions to penetrate Lake Vostok during the coming Antarctic field season.

"These lakes were rediscovered within the past 10 years or so, but no one yet has penetrated them and we want to make sure that the research is done properly and adheres to the highest environmental stewardship principles," says Kennicutt, who also serves as a director of the SALE (Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments) office, which is maintained at Texas A&M.

"This has the potential to be one of the most important scientific discoveries in years, since sub-ice water appears to be an important player in many different processes fundamental to Antarctica and our planet.

"We believe that these lakes are part of an interconnected system that spans the entire Antarctic continent," he adds. "These bodies of water are several miles beneath the ice sheet which took millions of years to form, meaning these lakes have been undisturbed and disconnected from our atmosphere for hundreds of thousands of years. It is highly likely that unique microbial communities that we never knew existed are lake residents."

A group of scientists, including Kennicutt, who also serves as an adviser to the National Science Foundation, the agency that funds and oversees all U.S. science in Antarctica, will meet in Big Sky, Mont., this week to discuss research procedures for studying sub-ice environments. The meeting closely follows the release of a report by the National Academies on environmental issues related to sub-ice exploration that provides guidance for future lake penetration.

Scientists from the countries involved, which include the U.S., France, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and others, have concluded that lake entry and sampling will ultimately be necessary to accomplish the ambitious research objectives, Kennicutt notes.

"How to do this in the best way to preserve these environments and to be least invasive is a key question that needs further discussion," he notes.

"The countries involved have all agreed we must do as much as possible to avoid altering the lakes or causing any environmental damage."

Research in Antarctica has always had a special set of rules among nations.

It is the only continent on Earth that is managed through an international treaty signed by 45 countries representing two-thirds of the world's population. By unanimous consent of these nations, Antarctica has been viewed as a continent for science, research and peace.

The Department of State coordinates U.S. policy on Antarctica and works closely with the National Science Foundation, which administers and manages the U.S. Antarctic Program. Kennicutt also assists the NSF's Office of Polar Program.

"We are probably 3-5 years away from conducting U.S. research on these underground lakes," Kennicutt believes.

"We believe these lakes may exert important controls on large ice sheet movement and that they are just like above-groundwater systems and include a range of features such as streams, rivers and lakes, only they are under kilometers of ice. Once the U.S. becomes fully engaged in these research efforts, this will almost certainly be one of the dominant Antarctic research focus areas for at least the next decade, if not longer."

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Texas A&M University.
 
Plans to drill into Lake Vostok, an underground Antarctic lake thought to have been isolated for 20 million years, could be revised after researchers revealed that it may contain two distinct ecosystems.

How many times do I have to warn you people? Both the Old Ones and their minions and Mighty Cthullhu and his minions wait patiently in two separate locations beneath frozen Lake Vostok, dreaming in shared slumber of the hour of their release when they will come forth and eat us.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Plans to drill into Lake Vostok, an underground Antarctic lake thought to have been isolated for 20 million years, could be revised after researchers revealed that it may contain two distinct ecosystems.

How many times do I have to warn you people? Both the Old Ones and their minions and Mighty Cthullhu and his minions wait patiently in two separate locations beneath frozen Lake Vostok, dreaming in shared slumber of the hour of their release when they will come forth and eat us.

They''l eat you but not me. They have promised me the position of Speaker for The Unspeakable Ones.
 
ramonmercado said:
They''l eat you but not me. They have promised me the position of Speaker for The Unspeakable Ones.

Ramon, Ramon, you have misread the contract. What it actually says is that you will be granted the mercy of being eaten first.
 
I was reading The Mountains Of Madness last night, its still truly great.
 
Hey, fella, anybody that loves Patrick Henry and H. P. Lovecraft can't be all bad. <g>

An old girlfriend, who was herself the great-great-great-grandniece of Capt. John Parker (the original Lexington Green Minute Man) used to claim that the word "firebrand" in the dictionary should always be accompanied by Patrick Henry's picture.
 
Hehe, yes I was also thinking of that old squidfaced bastard when I read this thread. Chtulu I mean, not Patrick Henry.
 
Xanatico said:
Hehe, yes I was also thinking of that old squidfaced bastard when I read this thread. Chtulu I mean, not Patrick Henry.

I'm sure happy you clarified that. Otherwise I'd be too terrified to ever again open an American history text.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Hey, fella, anybody that loves Patrick Henry and H. P. Lovecraft can't be all bad. <g>

An old girlfriend, who was herself the great-great-great-grandniece of Capt. John Parker (the original Lexington Green Minute Man) used to claim that the word "firebrand" in the dictionary should always be accompanied by Patrick Henry's picture.

Jefferson or Paine would suffice as well.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Xanatico said:
Hehe, yes I was also thinking of that old squidfaced bastard when I read this thread. Chtulu I mean, not Patrick Henry.

I'm sure happy you clarified that. Otherwise I'd be too terrified to ever again open an American history text.

Hmm, i'm tempted to do a group portrait of the Founding Fathers with squid faces! Wouldn't have to do too much work on Franklin!
 
Lake Vostok drilling in Antarctic 'running out of time'
By Katia Moskvitch, Science reporter, BBC News

With only about 50m left to drill, time is running out for the Russian scientists hoping to drill into Vostok - the world's most enigmatic lake.

Vostok is a sub-glacial lake in Antarctica, hidden some 4,000m (13,000ft) beneath the ice sheet.

With the Antarctic summer almost over, temperatures will soon begin to plummet; they can go as low as -80C.
Scientists will leave the remote base on 6 February, when conditions are still mild enough for a plane to land.

The team has been drilling non-stop for weeks.

"It's like working on an alien planet where no one has been before," Valery Lukin, the deputy head of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St Petersburg, which oversees the project, told BBC News.
"We don't know what awaits us down there," he said, adding that personnel at the station have been working shifts, drilling 24 hours a day.

But some experts remain concerned that probing the lake's water - thought by some to be isolated from everything else on Earth - could contaminate the pristine ecosystem and cause irreversible damage.

The sub-glacial lake is located underneath the remote Vostok station in Antarctica.
Overlaid by nearly 4km of ice, it has been isolated from the rest of the world for millions of years. Some scientists think the ice cap above and at the edges has created a hydrostatic seal with the surface, preventing lake water from escaping or anything else from getting inside.

And if the Russian team gets through to the pristine waters, they hope to encounter life forms that have never been seen.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12275979
 
Just think....a mere 50 meters more until the release of utterly Lovecraftian horrors upon an unsuspecting world. :)
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Just think....a mere 50 meters more until the release of utterly Lovecraftian horrors upon an unsuspecting world. :)

Then you will see who is their Speaker!

Hmmm, could be the Unspeakable Speaker of the House I guess.
 
Another Antartic lake.

Antarctic lake drilling mission edges closer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16538129
By David Shukman
Environment & science correspondent, BBC News

The advance party has arrived to set up vital equipment and supplies
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

Antarctic lake mission gets ready
Antarctic's hidden world revealed
Race to drill hidden polar lake
An ambitious plan to explore a vast lake trapped beneath the Antarctic ice is a step closer to becoming reality.

An advance party has braved freezing temperatures to set up vital equipment and supplies at Lake Ellsworth.

The project by UK engineers to drill through the two-mile-thick ice-sheet is scheduled for the end of the year.

The aims are to search for signs of life in the waters and to extract sediments from the lake floor to better understand the past climate.

It is is one of the most challenging British scientific projects for years.

The task is so complex that preparations have had to be spread over two Antarctic summer seasons.

In the first phase a "tractor train" has just hauled nearly 70 tonnes of equipment from an ice runway at Union Glacier through the Ellsworth mountains to the lake site.


The Lake Ellsworth site was chosen for its relative accessibility
The journey of about 400km (150 miles) involved crossing a mix of deep snow and rock-hard ice and took three days.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

It is really harsh and working there with equipment means you have to use thin gloves ”

Andy Tait
British Antarctic Survey
Once there, a four-man team stored the equipment and "winterised" it to cope with the incredibly low temperatures to come.

Wind-blown snow is expected to partially cover the gear but GPS markers fixed to the corners of the site will help locate it again.

The area around Lake Ellsworth is notorious for its deep cold and constant winds.

Lake Ellsworth is one of more than 400 sub-glacial lakes in Antarctica and was chosen for the drilling operation because of its relative accessibility.

One of the advance team, Andy Tait of the British Antarctic Survey, now back in the UK, told me about the sheer difficultly of conditions.

"The maximum summer temperature is minus 20 and with a wind of something like 30 knots you can imagine the cold.

"It is really harsh and working there with equipment means you have to use thin gloves - it is really cold."


The equipment had to be hauled hundreds of kilometres to the lake site
But the delivery of equipment is just one part of the preparations for the drilling and sampling operation.

Key components are still being manufactured and tested before they can be shipped south.

Most challenging is the complex sampling probe which has been designed to cope with a combination of extremely high pressures and extremely low temperatures.

It must also be assembled and delivered in conditions of the highest possible sterility.

For the first time in Antarctic exploration, an investigation is being planned with cleanliness standards higher than those of most surgeries.

Because one of the key aims is to search for signs of biology in the lake waters - one of the most tantalising questions - all possibility of contamination has to be eliminated.

Continue reading the main story
How scientists will reach Lake Ellsworth


1. A hot water drill will melt through the frozen ice sheet, which is up to 3km (2 miles) thick. After drilling, they will have an estimated 24 hours to collect samples before the borehole re-freezes

2. A probe will be lowered through the borehole to capture water samples

3. A specialised corer will then recover sediment from the floor of the lake through the same borehole

Watch the team's animated explation of the planned drill.

Source: Subglacial Lake Ellsworth Consortium

I watched as one team worked in a clean room at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

Each hi-tech component - including the titanium sampling bottles and specially-engineered filters - has to be sterilised.


Inside the clean room where the probe is being developed and put together
And the final assembly of the 5.5m probe will take place inside a unique "tent" accessed by gloved inlets along its sides.

This November, the second phase of shipments will take place and the operation will begin in earnest.

The drilling will be carried out by a system using hot water and is expected to take three days.

Once the bore-hole is open providing access to the lake beneath the ice, the team will then have 24 hours in which to lower the sampling devices.

Computer modelling indicates that the hole will then start to re-freeze making it impossible to use.

The plan is to first lower the water sampling probe - a process that should take an hour - and then a corer to extract lake sediment.

According to Andy Tait, all eyes will be on the weather. Although many stages of the operation can be handled under cover, ideally conditions will be calm when the drilling starts.

The engineering, the planning, the science are impressively thorough - but Antarctica is the most challenging place on earth in which to work, and outcomes can never be certain.


Russian and US teams are targeting Lakes Vostok and Whillans respectively
 
Russian scientists seeking Lake Vostok lost in frozen 'Land of the Lost'?

A group of Russian scientists plumbing the frozen Antarctic in search of a lake buried in ice for tens of millions of years have failed to respond to increasingly anxious U.S. colleagues -- and as the days creep by, the fate of the team remains unknown.

"No word from the ice for 5 days," Dr. John Priscu -- professor of ecology at Montana State University and head of a similar Antarctic exploration program -- told FoxNews.com via email.

The team from Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) have been drilling for weeks in an effort to reach isolated Lake Vostok, a vast, dark body of water hidden 13,000 ft. below the ice sheet's surface. The lake hasn't been exposed to air in more than 20 million years.

Priscu said there was no way to get in touch with the team -- and the already cold weather is set to plunge, as Antarctica's summer season ends and winter sets in.

"Temps are dropping below -40 Celsius [-40 degrees Fahrenheit] and they have only a week or so left before they have to winterize the station," he said. "I can only imagine what things must be like at Vostok Station this week."

The team's disappearance could not come at a worse time: They are about 40 feet from their goal of reaching the body of water, Priscu explained, a goal that the team was unable to meet as they raced the coming winter exactly one year ago.

When the winter arrives in the next few weeks, the temperature can get twice as cold. Vostok Station boasts the lowest recorded temperature on Earth: -89.4 degrees Celsius (-129 degrees Fahrenheit).

If the team does reach the lake water, they will bring its water up through the hole and let it freeze there over the winter. The following year they will be able to start research on what they find, Priscu explained.

While there are only a few researchers actually working at the lake, scientists around the globe have been waiting with bated breath to see what the Russian's unearth this weekend.

"We are terribly interested in what they find," Alan Rodger, a scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, told FoxNews.com last year. "This is a lake that we don't think has been exposed for 15 million years. Therefore, if there is life there, we're going to have so many questions. How has it evolved over those years, how has it survived, what does it look like? Won't it be exciting to find something completely new on Planet Earth?"

The Lake Vostok project has been years in the making, with initial drilling at the massive lake -- 15,690 square kilometers (6,060 sq mi) -- starting in 1998. Initially, they were able to reach 3,600 meters, but had to stop due to concerns of possible contamination of the never-before-touched lake water.

"Ice isn't like rock, it's capable of movement," Dr. Priscu told FoxNews.com. "So in order to keep the hole from squeezing shut, they put a fluid in the drill called kerosene. Kerosene also grows bacteria, and there's about 65 tons of kerosene in that hole. It would be a disaster if that kerosene contaminated this pristine lake."

But the scientists came up with a clever way to make sure this debacle would not occur. They agreed to drill until a sensor warned them of free water. At that point they will take out the right amount of kerosene and adjust the pressure so that none of the liquids fall into the lake, but rather lake water would rise through the hole.

Priscu was concerned for his colleagues, but also admits the stunning scope of the story.

"It could be fodder for a great made-for-TV movie," he said.

Source
 
CBS News has announced they've reached the lake. As of this moment, BBC is reporting lake contact as not yet confirmed.

February 7, 2012 10:14 AM

Russian team reaches Antarctica's buried Lake Vostok, say reports

(Livescience.com) Several Russian news outlets are reporting that Russian scientists have successfully drilled to Antarctica's Lake Vostok, a massive liquid lake cut off from daylight for 14 million years and buried beneath 2 miles (3.7 kilometers) of ice.

The lake is the object of a years-long project to study its waters, which may house life forms new to science.

The news appears to have originated from Ria Novosti, a state-run news agency, which ran the following quote from an unnamed source with no affiliation:

"Yesterday, our scientists stopped drilling at the depth of 3,768 meters (12,362 feet) and reached the surface of the sub-glacial lake."

The same news report went on to discuss an old theory that Nazis built a secret base at Lake Vostok in the 1930s, and that German submarines brought Hitler and Eva Braun's remains to Antarctica for cloning purposes following the German surrender in World War II.

"There are a lot of rumors going around about penetrating the lake, and we need the Russian program to make the official announcement," said John Priscu, a University of Montana microbiologist and veteran Antarctic researcher who has been involved in Lake Vostok investigations for years

"If they were successful, their efforts will transform the way we do science in Antarctica and provide us with an entirely new view of what exists under the vast Antarctic ice sheet," Priscu told OurAmazingPlanet in an email.

It appears there has been no official confirmation of the team's success. There are no press releases on the website of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, the government agency that oversees the country's polar science expeditions.

Possible cold-loving life

Lake Vostok, about the size of Lake Ontario, is the largest lake on the icy continent. Scientists estimate the lake itself is roughly 14 million years old -- the age of the ice sheet that covers it -- and that the water currently in the lake is roughly 1 million years old.

Scientists believe the lake could be home to cold-loving microbial life adapted to living in total darkness. The organisms likely survive using mechanisms similar to the ever-increasing parade of creatures that have been discovered living in the total darkness of hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, deriving energy from minerals in seafloor rocks.

Today's news follows on the heels of other unsourced reporting from American news outlets last week, which claimed the scientists were lost, and that something sinister was afoot at Vostok Station. Priscu, who has been in contact with Russian science headquarters in St. Petersburg over the course of the 2011-2012 field season, has firmly refuted such reports.

The Vostok team has been racing against the approach of Antarctica's brutal winter weather. Extreme cold can prevent aircraft from operating, and could maroon the team at the station during the total darkness and bitter temperatures of austral winter.

Temperatures have already plunged below minus 49 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 45 degrees Celsius), and Priscu said it was likely the team would need to leave by this week at the latest. [The Coldest Places on Earth]

Race to test for life

Even if the Russian team has reached the lake, they will be forced to wait until next season to actually sample the water because of the type of drill they're using, which can bring back only ice -- not liquid water -- from the deep borehole. The water must freeze over the Antarctic winter before researchers can lay hands on it, to see what organisms might be living in Lake Vostok.

Two other nations are mounting projects to drill into ancient Antarctic lakes hidden beneath miles of ice, and with drill technology that can fetch liquid water samples for analysis in the space of days. Both lakes are in West Antarctica, in conditions slightly less brutal than those at Vostok Station, which holds the record for coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth: minus 129 degrees F (minus 89 degrees C), in July 1983.

The British are positioned to start drilling at Antarctica's Lake Ellsworth in autumn 2012, and an American team hopes to begin drilling to the Whillans Ice Stream, a network of subglacial waterways, in January 2013.

If the Russians have indeed reached Lake Vostok this week, it could be a close contest to see who will be first to test whether life can go on in the cold darkness beneath Antarctica's ice.

SOURCE: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-573 ... y-reports/
 
A Russian site has a slightly different take on things...

Russian Scientists Drill to Sub-Glacial Antarctic Lake

After decades of drilling , Russian scientists have finally managed to pierce through Antarctica’s ice sheet to reveal the secrets of a unique sub-glacial lake, Vostok, that has been sealed there for the past 20 million years, a scientific source said on Monday.

“Yesterday, our scientists stopped drilling at the depth of 3,768 meters and reached the surface of the sub-glacial lake,” the source said.

Explorers hope Lake Vostok, which is the largest of Antarctica's buried network of icebound lakes and also one of the largest lakes in the world, could reveal new forms of life and show how life evolved before the ice age.

The discovery of the hidden lakes of Antarctica in the 1990s sparked much enthusiasm among scientists all over the world. Some think the ice cap above and at the edges have created a hydrostatic seal with the surface that has prevented lake water from escaping or anything else from getting inside.

Lake Vostok could also offer a glimpse of what conditions exist for life in similar extreme conditions on Mars and Jupiter’s moon, Europa, according to RedOrbit scientific news portal.

Explorers from the United States and Britain are following the trail of their Russia’s colleagues with their own missions to probe other hidden Arctic lakes, which are among the last of the world’s hidden and unexplored areas.

With the current events happening at Lake Vostok, an old theory saying that German Nazis may have built a secret base there as early as the 1930s, has resurfaced.

It is thought that towards the end of the Second World War, the Nazis moved to the South Pole and started constructing a base at Lake Vostok. In 1943, Grand Admiral Karl Dontiz was quoted saying “Germany's submarine fleet is proud that it created an unassailable fortress for the Fuehrer on the other end of the world,” in Antarctica.

According to German naval archives, months after Germany surrendered to the Allies in April, 1945, the German submarine U-530 arrived at the South Pole from the Port of Kiel. Crewmembers constructed an ice cave and supposedly stored several boxes of relics from the Third Reich, including Hitler’s secret files.

It is also rumored that later the submarine U-977 delivered the remains of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun to Antarctica for DNA cloning purposes.

The subs then entered the Argentinean port of Mar-del-Plata and surrendered to authorities.

Source
 
The whole notion of a secret Nazi base in Antarctica was pretty thoroughly debunked in:

Summerhayes, C., and Beeching, P. Hitler’s Antarctic base: the myth and the reality. Polar Record 43 (224): 1–21 (2007).

The full article is accessible in PDF format at:

http://www.histarmar.com.ar/Antartida/B ... Hitler.pdf

... and there's a copy on Scribd.
 
EnolaGaia said:
The whole notion of a secret Nazi base in Antarctica was pretty thoroughly debunked in:...

Although, it's pretty inevitable that when the Russians do get down to the water they'll find a row of deckchairs with neatly folded towels already placed on them.
 
Off to Lake Ellsworth.

Drill kit begins journey to Antarctica's Lake Ellsworth
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19196175
By David Shukman
Science editor, BBC News

Avoiding contamination is a key element of the British drilling project

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A daring project to explore an ancient lake hidden beneath the Antarctic ice moves closer to reality this weekend.

A huge load of essential equipment is starting the long journey by ship from the UK to the far South.

Probes to delve into the pitch-black waters of remote Lake Ellsworth are packed for one of the most difficult science missions of recent years.

Engineers raced to sterilise thousands of components to avoid any risk of contamination in the search for life.

The lake lies under an ice-sheet nearly two miles thick and is believed to be totally pristine, having remained isolated for possibly half a million years.

No one can predict what may be found, but some species of microbes are considered likely - which would provide an astonishing example of the adaptability of life to incredibly hostile environments

A Russian project that drilled into Lake Vostok - much larger and deeper than Lake Ellsworth - collected water samples last January but questions remain about the sterility of the equipment and the bore-hole.

Avoiding contamination is a key element of the British project so the drilling and sampling will be undertaken in conditions considered cleaner than those required in a typical surgery.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

While the journey getting to this point has been hard we realise we are still only at the beginning”

Prof Martin Siegert
University of Bristol
The mission's success will depend on a combination of high-technology, innovative design and true grit in a region of Antarctica notorious for its freezing weather and near-constant winds.

A first batch of equipment was delivered to the lake site last year by a tractor-train that traversed an icy terrain scarred by crevasses. The gear was then "winterised" and left tor use in the coming months.

The load being included the pump that will drive a hot-water drill - the aim is to blast a hole through the ice not with a standard drill-bit but with the heat and pressure of water at 90C (194F).

The water itself will be melted from surrounding ice and then passed through a series of filters and ultra-violet systems to ensure that it is as sterile as possible - that equipment is on its way now.

The first stage of the operation will involve engineers arriving at the site in early November to activate the winterised equipment and start assembling the camp and key components.


Lake Ellsworth was chosen in part for its relative accessibility
Another tractor-train will deliver the heaviest of the gear including the probes that will sample water and extract a core of lake sediment.

The science team is due in early December and the schedule calls for the actual drilling - a five day process - to start later that month.

Once the bore-hole is complete, there will be just 24 hours before it refreezes and the sampling must all take place within that short period. The first samples are expected to reach the surface in the middle of December.

The chief scientist behind the project is Prof Martin Siegert of Bristol University, who was involved in the first discoveries of lakes in Antarctica and will be at the lake site for the operation.

He describes this mission as "one of the most important and challenging ever conducted in polar scientific exploration".

"We first thought about exploring sub-glacial lakes 16 years ago," he says, "and now we are finally on the cusp of launching our plans and turning dreams of this exploration into reality.

"While the journey getting to this point has been hard we realise we are still only at the beginning."

Continue reading the main story
How scientists will reach Lake Ellsworth


1. A hot water drill will melt through the frozen ice sheet, which is up to 3km (2 miles) thick. After drilling, they will have an estimated 24 hours to collect samples before the borehole re-freezes

2. A probe will be lowered through the borehole to capture water samples

3. A specialised corer will then recover sediment from the floor of the lake through the same borehole

Watch the team's animated explanation of the planned drill.

Source: Subglacial Lake Ellsworth Consortium

Much of the preparation of the equipment has been carried out by staff at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge and the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

In one test, the water sampling probe - the result of three years of design and development - was carefully lowered over the dockside to check its controls.

With the instruments powered up and calibrated, the aim was to check the device could gather water samples at different depths, while taking other readings and capturing HD video.

A minor communications problem was later fixed and a valve on one of the 24 sampling bottles stuck but otherwise the sensors and cameras worked fine.

The test took place on Friday 13 July.

But project manager Chris Hill said: "Despite this test being on such an ominous date (a brave move if ever there was one), I'm pleased to report that the test was a great success. "

Meanwhile the second of the probes - a sediment corer - was put through its paces in a trial at a lake in Austria.

The device has to be able to withstand the extreme conditions of Antarctica but hostile weather of a different kind challenged the team: a thunderstorm struck while the engineers were out on a boat in the middle of the water.

Since then the probes and all the support equipment have been sterilised multiple times: scrubbing with detergent, washing in biocide, bathing in ethanol and then a blast of hydrogen peroxide vapour.

After visiting the team several times this year, it is clear that they have endeavoured to think through every potential problem and have learned lessons from previous expeditions.

For example, an earlier attempt to use a hot water drill in Antarctica failed when the hose, made up of 400m sections, broke apart under the weight of the water. This time, the hose is a single length.

According to Prof Siegert, there are risks with only having one hose and one boiler. On the other hand, there will be four pumps when only two are needed and the stores of fuel and many components have been doubled-up.

But when pressed on the chances of success - of surviving the cold, of getting everything to work properly and of retrieving uncontaminated samples - Prof Siegert and the rest of the team tend to give the same answer.

"Let's not forget that we're dealing with Antarctica," they say. Antarctica.

That one word conveys so much: extreme isolation, incredibly forbidding conditions and an unmatched ability to be totally unpredictable.

The Lake Ellsworth Consortium is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc).

Martin Siegert is featured on The Life Scientific on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday August 21 at 9am and 9.30pm


Russian and US teams are targeting Lakes Vostok and Whillans respectively
 
No sign of Life yet. But Cthulhu will make his presence known when he chooses.

No signs of life from Lake Vostok – so far
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2 ... o-far.html
15:44 22 October 2012 by Michael Marshall

Nothing to see here – at least not yet. Lake Vostok, the vast body of water hidden beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, has so far shown no signs of life.

Isolated from the rest of the planet for 14 million years, Lake Vostok might be the only body of water on Earth to contain no life whatsoever. However, if life is found, it will be a big boost for researchers hoping to find microorganisms on icy moons like Europa.

A Russian team became the first to breach Lake Vostok on 5 February, after drilling down through over 3.5 kilometres of ice. To avoid contaminating the lake, their drill bit automatically withdrew as soon as it struck water. That water rose 30 to 40 metres up the borehole, forcing the drilling fluid away from the lake. The water then froze.

Sergey Bulat of the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in St Petersburg, Russia, and colleagues have now analysed the water – contaminated with some drilling fluid – that froze onto the drill bit at a depth of 3714 metres. He counted cells and looked for traces of DNA.

Bacteria detected

In preliminary results, reported at last week's 12th European Workshop on Astrobiology in Stockholm, Sweden, Bulat says there were only about 10 cells in every millilitre. There was also DNA from four species of bacteria, three of which were known to exist in the drilling fluid. The fourth was able to degrade the hydrocarbons within fluid to release energy, suggesting it had adapted to life inside the fluid. Bulat thinks none of the bacteria came from the lake.

He cautions that we cannot yet be sure that the upper layers of Lake Vostok are devoid of life, as microorganisms could be living at low densities that he could not reliably detect. "The concentrations expected for indigenous stuff are very low," Bulat says.

It will not be possible to draw firm conclusions until the team returns to the area in December. They should be able to pull up more ice from the depths of the borehole, most of it uncontaminated by the drilling fluid.

Sediment target

Lake Vostok is one of many subglacial lakes in Antarctica. There are plans to drill into two others, Ellsworth and Whillans.

Ellsworth could yet become the first Antarctic lake to yield life. A British team plans to drill into it within the next few months, and will lower in a probe that will collect samples of sediment from the bottom.

That gives them an advantage over the Russian team. Lake sediments are the most promising places to find life, but the Russians do not have a firm plan to drill into them as yet.

The sediments are produced as the ice sheet grinds slowly over the underlying rocks, and will contain mineral nutrients from the rocks that could sustain microorganisms. The pitch-black water will contain little for the bugs to eat, so it's unlikely there is much life there.
 
Not Cthulhu, shoggoths, rising up the borehole. "Tekeli-li!"
 
ramonmercado said:
No sign of Life yet. But Cthulhu will make his presence known when he chooses.

Yes. He's waiting for something, although I'm not sure what. Living the the life of R'lyeh while he waits, no doubt.
 
ramonmercado said:
No sign of Life yet. But Cthulhu will make his presence known when he chooses.
There's no signs of life because Cthulhu has eaten everything. ;)
 
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