Russian scientists reach buried Antarctic Lake Vostok

Published February 06, 2012

A group of Russian scientists in Antarctica has succeeded in drilling to a lake buried two miles beneath the icy landmass, the state-run 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.

An unnamed source with Russia's Federal Service for Hydrometeorology confirmed the news as well, Russian business newspaper The View reported.

John Priscu, a microbiologist with Montana State University who has worked on a similar Antarctic exploration program, hopes Vostok and other subglacial lakes buried beneath the continent may offer a glimpse of extreme new forms of life.

"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," he told FoxNews.com.

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.

Russia has not yet officially confirmed the breakthrough.

Beyond the fantastic science, Ria Novosti noted a number of rumors about the lake, including one that talks of a secret Nazi sub base, and the bodies of Hitler and his mistress being delivered there for cloning -- fantastic stories that again are surfacing in the Russian press.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/06/russian-scientists-reach-buried-antarctic-lake-vostok/?intcmp=features#ixzz1ldcngqWl 

Film at 11.... 😱

What if they uncover the Zombie Virus..?? 😨

MOSCOW – Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin on Friday received the first sample of water from an underground lake in Antarctica that was hidden for an estimated 20 million years.

A Russian team successfully drilled down to Lake Vostok on Sunday, after a desperate battle against the clock before the brutal Antarctic winter set in.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Yury Trutnev, who was in Antarctica for the historic moment the lake was breached, arrived at a meeting with Putin on Friday and presented him with some of the water, the Ria Novosti news agency reported.

The water was in a glass container and appeared yellowish in color. It carried a note that read, "Lake Vostok, more than million years old, depth 3,769.3 meters (12,365 feet), 5.12.11, Antarctic."

Scientists hope Lake Vostok could reveal new forms of life and help them understand the extreme conditions of Mars and Europa, Jupiter's moon, which researchers suspect could be hiding a liquid ocean beneath its frozen upper crust.

The Russian team had not been heard from for more than a week before the breakthrough was announced, raising fears for its safety. Temperatures were dropping below minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit), and the clock was ticking before the onset of the Antarctic winter, when the temperature would get twice as cold.

Vostok Station boasts the lowest recorded temperature on Earth: minus 89.4 degrees Celsius (minus 129 degrees Fahrenheit).

The Lake Vostok project has been years in the making, with initial drilling at the massive lake 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.

Scientists from around the world are racing to explore the mysteries of Antarctica, and there are two similar 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.

Film at 11.... 😰

And she said with a tear in her eye...

Watch out where the huskies go...

It was low hanging fruit.

It was just there.

Don't look at me like that.

You KNOW how I am.