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Lake Vostok and other Antarctic Ice Lakes
last update: Aug 20, 2008 01:34 PM
The initial theory, by Russians travelling to the Vostok Station, suggesting the existence of Lake Vostok was not acted upon until 1996, when British and Russian Scientists conducted Airborne radar experiments. Their finding confirmed the existence of a huge lake under the ice glacier at a depth of over 3000 m. The water in the lake is potentially several hundred million years old, and may contain primitive life forms or other information about earths past. Since the discovery of Lake Vostok, 76 similar lakes have been found in Antarctica, one of which is under the South Pole. The significance of these lakes is potentially enormous, and many questions immediately arose:
- Why was the lake liquid not frozen?
- Was there life in this lake?
- How would life survive in those temperatures?
- What would these organisms feed on?
- Could similar life forms exist on other planets in space, even our solar system?
- Should we drill into this and / or other lakes?
- Is it possible to drill into the ice and conduct experiments without contaminating the lake?
- If Scientists drill, who (which country) and using what methods?
- etc, etc, etc ...
Background Info
Lake Vostok is a large (10000 square km) liquid subglacial lake situated over 3.5 km below the ice surface at 77S, 105E. The lake is between 10 and 500m deep, and is 280 (N-S) x 55 (E-W) km in size. The Russians have maintained an ice core drilling program since 1989 (before the discovery of the lake) as part of a well recognised scientific glaciology study. Their present drill depth stands at 3625m just a few tens of meters above the lake. Drilling at Lake Vostok has stopped until a decision can be made internationally about whether or not to drill and if so using what methods and how.
What's all the fuss about?
The
water in the lake is at least 400 Million years old, meaning that what
ever has been trapped with it has existed in a pristine environment
since then. Also should there be primitive life forms still alive in
the lake, their existence and more importantly their method of
existence would add vastly to our understanding of the science of life,
and have a huge impact on our understanding and search for life on
other planets in the solar system and in space in general.
Scientists
outside Antarctic related fields are also interested in the results of
research done in and around Lake Vostok. In particular NASA and other
US agencies want to learn from results found in Vostok and their
research and study of planets and moons in our solar system, especially
Jupiter's moon Europa.
Even if it is decided to drill, how would
scientists study this lake without contaminating it? Suggestions seem
to be centered around cryobots, which will melt their way into the
lake, leaving the column above to refreeze. The bots would then send
signals back to the station above with results. There are however
problems with sending cryobots down, they need to be remote controlled
in cold temperatures, they can not send back samples, how can they
sterilise themselves before entering the lake etc. Test runs using
cryobots have started in the arctic to test some of the ideas and
options, ultimately the decisions will become one of "acceptable risk",
but it is important to understand, acceptable to who?
The issues
of life (and interest by NASA), pristine environments and the potential
to contaminate the lake has given rise to a heap of philosophical and
political questions besides the technical and practical questions.
Alternative Threories
Due to the uncertainty, the open and potential questions, the link to alien life forms on other plants etc, Lake Vostok has been the subject or used to support many, many alternative and unofficial theories including Alien life, Atlantis, and more.
