Fears held for Russian scientists exploring "alien" Antarctic lake, Vostok

[G_j]

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business-tech/science/120203/alien-lake-vostok-russia-science-exploration-antarctica

Fears held for Russian scientists exploring "alien" Antarctic lake, Vostok

2/3/12

Russian scientists preparing to explore the "most alien lake on Earth," Lake Vostok, have reportedly not been in touch with American colleagues in over five days.

Vostok, buried over two miles — or 13,000 feet — beneath the great Antarctic ice sheet, is one of the world's largest lakes. However, it hasn't been exposed to air in more than 20 million years, Fox News reported.

The team from Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) have been drilling for weeks to reach the isolated, subglacial water, part of a network of more than 200 subglacial lakes in Antarctica, according to the Washington Post.

Some of the lakes existed in warmer times, when the continent was connected to Australia.

According to the website io9.com:

Vostok is thought to harbor conditions similar to those of Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, and the discovery of life in the lake's inky depths would significantly strengthen the prospect of discovering life on either of these icy bodies.

However, the lake is "characterized by extremes, as geothermal heat from the Earth's interior warms the lake's bottom keeping it in a liquid state.



..more..

[Johnson20]

1. "Oh my God its full of stars." :)

[G_j]

2. good

answer...

[Javaman]

8. Here's what I wrote on the same topic in GD...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1228&pid=1905

[sharp_stick]

3. There isn't a lot of time left to get in there to them

Lake Vostok is more isolated than the actual pole and it doesn't have the capability to overwinter more than a dozen people or so.

I hope they're OK.

[G_j]

4. I do too

time is short indeed

[leveymg]

5. Or some THING else . . . Watch the skies!

[FailureToCommunicate]

18. Yikes...not much of a makeup job

for a vegetable.

[librechik]

34. lol

except, maybe....

[Octafish]

6. What could go wrong?

Last edited Sat Feb 4, 2012, 11:25 AM - Edit history (1)

Apart from contaminating the lake with modern day germs and such?

Touching the Oldest Water on Earth.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/quirks-quarks-blog/2012/02/touching-the-oldest-water-on-earth.html

[eyewall]

7. Here it comes...

oops, we seem to have unleashed a deadly 20 million year old virus for which there are no known existing antibodies. Sorry.

[Roland99]

9. The Thing!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/

[bathroommonkey76]

10. One of John Carpenter's best movies

[MountainLaurel]

16. My first thought as well

And a prequel is even in the works/was recently released.

[flying rabbit]

11. The Elder Things.

At the Mountains of Madness.

[eyewall]

12. all of the above

and don't forget the original, The Thing From Another World. A milestone for SciFi movies and one of the most intelligent of all 50's scifi movies.


I do hope the Russian team are all okay.

[AnnieBW]

25. Cthulhu Fthagan!

It's a wonderful phrase!

[jpak]

27. Tikeli Li!

Tikeli Li!

[Hayabusa]

30. Heh, that was my first thought.

Some eldritch horror hiding.

In all seriousness, I hope that they're okay.

[Ferretherder]

32. H. P. Lovecraft,...

...FOREVER!

[Tikki]

13. Hope they are alright...maybe they ran into these...

guys buried under the ice..buried..but just waiting...

These be Borg..


The Tikki

[Vehl]

14. I hope they are ok

it would be a tragic loss for the scientific community if something happens to them.

[Kermitt Gribble]

15. The dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum

[Hawkowl]

17. Balrog

That would explain the heat! Geothermal indeed.

[Selatius]

24. A demon of the ancient world. nt

[Lochloosa]

19. Update:

Seriously, I hope they are ok.

[tawadi]

20. snort

[Canuckistanian]

21. Lake Vostok documentary here (does a good job of explaining technical problems)

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-lost-world-of-lake-vostok/

[thelordofhell]

22. All these lakes are yours......except Vostok

Attempt no drilling there

[dipsydoodle]

23. Antarctic lake success 'uncertain'

It is not yet clear whether Russian scientists have succeeded in their quest to drill into Lake Vostok.

National media on Monday reported a breakthrough into the lake, the largest of more than 300 bodies of liquid water buried under Antarctica's ice.

But Valery Lukin, the Russian Antarctic programme director, has told Nature journal that the claim is premature.

He said data from a number of sensors monitoring the drilling had yet to be analysed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16907998

[HotRodTuna]

26. Were they actually going to send someone down?

Like in a tube? If they're using a standard drill rig, there's no way a man is going down that hole. I just assumed they were gathering samples.

[jpak]

28. Daily radio contact is SOP for Antarctic research stations - and there is usually multiple means

communication.

Very odd - and disturbing.

[Baclava]

29. This is the team that should be going to Europa.

Russia's Putin gets a drink fit for dinosaurs

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin received a drink fit for dinosaurs on Friday when he was presented with a sample of ancient water from a sub-glacial Antarctic lake pierced by Russian scientists.

Russian scientists said this week they had drilled through Antarctica's frozen crust to the vast Lake Vostok, which has lain untouched for at least 14 million years hiding what scientists believe may be unknown organisms and clues to life on other planets.

"Well, did you drink the water?" Putin asked Russia's Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev after being presented with a vial of water which the government said was from the Vostok borehole.

Trutnev, looking flustered, assured Putin that he had not tried a drop of the water.

"Well it would have been interesting you know: dinosaurs drank it and Trutnev, a member of the Russian government, too," Putin said with a smile.



http://news.yahoo.com/russias-putin-gets-drink-fit-dinosaurs-162837985.html

[Poll_Blind]

31. Either unable, unwilling or compelled not to. I hope they're ok. nt

PB

[Uncle Joe]

33. I hope the Russian Scientists are ok.

Thanks for the thread, G_j.