Russian Scientists Breach Antarctica's Lake Vostok

A cross-section of Lake Vostok, the largest known subglacial lake in Antarctica, is seen in an illustration.

Illustration courtesy Nicolle Rager-Fuller, NSF

RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS TO UNVEIL VOSTOK LAKE SECRETS

Drilling activities were reassumed after a year of waiting and scientists expect to reach the world’s biggest sub glacial lake in the following days. Vostok is also the deepest of the more than 170 sub glacial lakes discovered in Antarctica and it is expected to contain the most pristine and ancient water in the world.

There are still many feats to be done by scientists. But drilling through more than 3.000 mts of ancient ice in the coldest and most isolated region of the planet is definitely one of those achievements that will make history.

For the past years, Russian scientists have been working to get a sample of what is expected to be the most ancient and pristine water in the world. The expert team plans to reach the surface of LakeVostok in the following days.

Lake Vostok is the largest of the 170 sub glacial lakes that have been discovered under the frozen surface of Antarctica. It is located near the Russian Vostok Station, close to the South Pole of Inaccessibility and the place where the lowest temperature in history was registered-82 ºC.

Lake Vostok is a massive area of water of 250 km., trapped under the frozen surface of Antarctica. It is buried under 3.500 meters of ice and snow and has remained this way for the thousands of yeas.

For the last years, a team of technicians and scientists from the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, have worked there with an especially designed hot water drill to go through the rock solid ice down to the water. They melt ice and snow with a boiler and push it at high pressure to drill through the ice.

The original plan was to get to the water last year, but due to the climate conditions, tasks had to be stopped until this year’s summer season.

Now, according to the announcement made by the AARI Director Valerie Lukin, scientists are less than 50 meters away from their objective.

Once they reach their objective, they will allow the water to freee inside the hole and  wait till next year to collect the samples in order to avoid contaminating the lake.

At the doors of Alfred Wegener's 100 anniversary theory!

Where would modern geology be without Alfred Wegener? This remarkable scientist's theory of continental drift (which he first proposed in 1912) is the very basis for the current groundbreaking (pun intended) theory of plate tectonics. Wegener was born November 1, 1880 in Berlin, and although he earned a doctorate in astronomy, his main interests were meteorology and climate.

When he noticed how Earth's large land masses seemed to fit together like puzzle pieces (e.g. South America fits with Africa), and how some fossils and rock types on different continents also seemed to match up with each other, it occurred to Wegener that continental drift could be the only reasonable explanation. His new theory also better explained earthquakes, volcanism, and mountain-building. But because he wasn't a trained geologist, Wegener's hypothesis was not at all well-received by the geologists of his day. It wasn't until the 1950s, after ocean floor mapping (by the naval military during World War II) and data from paleomagnetism and paleoclimate studies became available that Wegener's theory finally began to be embraced. Unfortunately, Wegener wasn't able to enjoy his vindication, since he had died decades before during a meteorological expedition to Greenland.

Alfred Wegener in Greenland, November 1, 1930: This last known photograph of Alfred Wegener (left) was taken on his 50th birthday, not long before his death. Fellow explorer Rasmus Villumsen is seen on right.Courtesy Archive of Alfred Wegener Institute via Wikipedia

SOURCES and FURTHER INFO

Wegener biography on NASA's Earth Observatory page
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
More about plate tectonics