Russian Scientists Seeking Lake Vostok Lost In Frozen 'Land of the Lost'?

**Ryan Ruck** · February 6th, 2012, 06:31

Russian Scientists Seeking Lake Vostok Lost In Frozen 'Land of the Lost'?

February 2, 2012

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.

Pretty sure they did make a movie about this...

**American Patriot** · February 6th, 2012, 14:12

Wasn't dinosaurs that got 'em. It was the Aliens.

/chuckles

**American Patriot** · February 6th, 2012, 15:46

Russian scientists reach buried Antarctic Lake Vostok

Published February 06, 2012
| FoxNews.com

Peter Doran/National Science Foundation
Sunlight plays off the Canada Glacier in the Wrigth Valley, one of the McMurdo Dry Valleys.

A group of Russian scientists in Antarctica has succeeded in drilling to a lake buried two miles beneath the icy landmass, Russian news service Ria Novosti reported -- following a week of radio silence from the team that had some scratching their heads.

“Yesterday, our scientists stopped drilling at the depth of 3,768 meters and reached the surface of the sub-glacial lake,” the source reportedly said in a story posted Monday, Feb. 6.

The team from Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) had 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.

A brief break in communication with colleagues in the unfrozen world had some asking questions about the scientists, as Antarctica’s killing winter draws near. But despite the lack of info and onset of winter, which brings temperatures as low as -80 F or colder, the team was never in danger, Priscu said.

"They are very capable scientists and drillers and the thought never entered my mind that they are in any kind of danger," Dr John Priscu told FoxNews.com.

Priscu, a microbiologist with Montana State University who has worked on a similar Antarctic exploration program, is one of few sources of information on the scientists. They hope Vostok and other subglacial lakes buried beneath the continent may offer a glimpse of extreme new forms of life.

The buried lake may be similar to the conditions on Mars and Jupiter’s moon Europa, Ria Novosti said.

The Lake Vostok project has been years in the making, with initial drilling at the massive lake -- 6,060 square miles (15,690 square kilometers) -- starting in 1998. The scientists were quickly able to reach 11,800 feet (3,600 meters), but had to stop due to concerns of possible contamination of the never-before-touched lake water.

The scientists came up with a clever way to make sure the water would not be contaminated: They agreed to drill until a sensor warned them of free water. At that point they took out the kerosene and adjusted the pressure so that none of the liquids would fall into the lake, but rather lake water would rise through the hole due to pressure from below.

The Russians are not alone in such a mission: Scientists from around the world are literally racing to explore the mysteries of Antarctica. There are two other Antarctic digs underway.

A team from the British Antarctic Survey is on a competing mission, set to plumb the depths of Lake Ellsworth, one of a string of more than 370 lakes beneath Antarctica that may soon see light for the first time. And a third Antarctic expedition -- a study of the subglacial Whillans Ice Stream -- mainly features U.S. scientists.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/...#ixzz1lcJmy9cs

**Malsua** · February 6th, 2012, 18:04

I was reading an article on FR and someone had a great theory that Hydrogen sulfide coming up from the bottom, as a byproduct of the creatures living there, overwhelmed the scientists and they're all dead.

Interesting theory. What is more likely is that their phone(s) isn't working.

**American Patriot** · February 8th, 2012, 15:37

8 February 2012 Last updated at 09:29 ET

Lake Vostok drilling team claims breakthrough

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Vostok station is one of the most difficult places to work on Earth
Continue reading the main story Related Stories

Russian scientists are reporting success in their quest to drill into Lake Vostok, a huge body of liquid water buried under the Antarctic ice.
It is the first time such a breakthrough has been made into one of the more than 300 sub-glacial lakes known to exist on the White Continent.
Researchers believe Vostok can give them some fresh insights into the frozen history of Antarctica.
They also hope to find microbial lifeforms that are new to science.
"This fills my soul with joy," said Valery Lukin, from Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St Petersburg, which has been overseeing the project,
"This will give us the possibility to biologically evaluate the evolution of living organisms... because those organisms spent a long time without contact with the atmosphere, without sunlight," he was quoted as saying in a translation of national media reports by BBC Monitoring.
The drilling project has taken years to plan and implement. The lake's location in the heart of East Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.
It is the place where thermometers recorded the lowest ever temperature on the planet - minus 89C on 21 July 1983.
Vostok Station was first set up in 1956. However, it was only in the 1970s when, with the help of radar, British scientists first started to suspect there might be something underneath all the ice.
Further geophysical survey data then established the true scale of the sub-glacial feature.
With an area of 10,000 square km and with depths reaching 800m, Lake Vostok is similar in size to Lake Baikal in Siberia or Lake Ontario in North America.
More than 300 such bodies of water have now been identified across Antarctica. They are kept liquid by geothermal heat and pressure, and are part of a vast and dynamic hydrological network at play under the ice sheet.
Some of the lakes are connected, and will exchange water. But some may be completely cut off, in which case their water may have been resident in one place for thousands if not millions of years. Russian researchers will try to establish just how isolated Lake Vostok has been. If it has been sealed then micro-organisms new to science are very likely to have evolved in the lake.
The Vostok project is one of a number of similar ventures being undertaken on the White Continent.
The British Antarctic Survey (Bas) is hoping to begin its effort to drill into Lake Ellsworth in West Antarctica later this year. An American crew is targeting Lake Whillans, also in the West.
"It is an important milestone that has been completed and a major achievement for the Russians because they've been working on this for years," Professor Martin Siegert, the principal investigator on the Bas-Ellsworth project said.
"The Russian team share our mission to understand subglacial lake environments and we look forward to developing collaborations with their scientists and also those from the US and other nations, as we all embark on a quest to comprehend these pristine, extreme environments," he told AP.
The projects are of particular fascination to astrobiologists, who study the origins and likely distribution of life across the Universe.
Conditions in these Antarctic lakes may not be that different from those in the liquid water bodies thought to exist under the surfaces of icy moons in the outer Solar System.
Places like Europa, which orbits Jupiter, and Enceladus, which circles Saturn, may be among the best places beyond Earth to go look for alien organisms.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter

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