irishspirit
16th January 2011, 16:01
Lake Vostok, which has been sealed off from the world for 14 million years, is about to be penetrated (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19918-mysteries-of-lake-vostok-on-brink-of-discovery.html) by a Russian drill bit.
The lake, which lies 2.5 miles below the icy surface of Antarctica, is unique in that it’s been completely isolated from the other 150 subglacial lakes (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-09/01/sea-creatures) on the continent for such a long time. It’s also oligotropic, meaning that it’s supersaturated with oxygen (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/26/cassini-finds-oxygen-atmosphere-on-saturns-moon-rhea): Levels of the element are 50 times higher than those found in most typical freshwater lakes.
Since 1990, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (http://www.aari.nw.ru/default_en.asp) in St. Petersburg in Russia has been drilling through the ice to reach the lake, but fears of contamination of the ecosystem in the lake have stopped the process multiple times, most notably in 1998 when the drills were turned off for almost eight years.
Now, the team has satisfied the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, which safeguards the continent’s environment, that it’s come up with a technique to sample the lake without contaminating it. Valery Lukin told New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19918-mysteries-of-lake-vostok-on-brink-of-discovery.html): “Once the lake is reached, the water pressure will push the working body and the drilling fluid upwards in the borehole, and then freeze again.” The next season, the team will bore into that frozen water to recover a sample whose contents can then be analysed.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/lake-vostok-antarctica/
The lake, which lies 2.5 miles below the icy surface of Antarctica, is unique in that it’s been completely isolated from the other 150 subglacial lakes (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-09/01/sea-creatures) on the continent for such a long time. It’s also oligotropic, meaning that it’s supersaturated with oxygen (http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/26/cassini-finds-oxygen-atmosphere-on-saturns-moon-rhea): Levels of the element are 50 times higher than those found in most typical freshwater lakes.
Since 1990, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (http://www.aari.nw.ru/default_en.asp) in St. Petersburg in Russia has been drilling through the ice to reach the lake, but fears of contamination of the ecosystem in the lake have stopped the process multiple times, most notably in 1998 when the drills were turned off for almost eight years.
Now, the team has satisfied the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, which safeguards the continent’s environment, that it’s come up with a technique to sample the lake without contaminating it. Valery Lukin told New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19918-mysteries-of-lake-vostok-on-brink-of-discovery.html): “Once the lake is reached, the water pressure will push the working body and the drilling fluid upwards in the borehole, and then freeze again.” The next season, the team will bore into that frozen water to recover a sample whose contents can then be analysed.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/lake-vostok-antarctica/