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Antarctic Lake Actually Two in One

Posted by michael on from the double-your-pleasure dept.

Scoria writes "USA Today reports: Scientists have discovered that Lake Vostok, a liquid freshwater lake which has been isolated from the world beneath 4 km of ice for approximately 500,000 years, contains two separate basins. They believe that the basins, which are divided by a ridge that limits water exchange, may host individual ecosystems that are home to ancient microbes."

10 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe by wideBlueSkies · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's really one giant organism in the process of dividing....

    wbs.

    --
    Huh?
    1. Re:Maybe by lonesome+phreak · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Cthulhu sleeps under an island (Pohnpei) in the South Pacific. Off http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com:

      "Co-ordinates of S. Latitude 47 9, W. Longitude 126 43 have been stated by Lovecraft but never investigated. August Derleth used the co-ordinates of S. Latitude 49 51, W. Longitude 128 34 in his own writings. The latter also places it about a day's journey from Pohnpei, an actual island of the area, which consequently plays a central part in the Cthulhu Mythos."

      Also noted "The island is notable for the prevalence of the extreme form of color blindness. Maskun is a medical condition (also called achromatopsia) characterized by the inability to perceive any colors, a severe and rare form of color blindness. It is caused by the lack of any functioning cone cells in the retina; these are the light receptors responsible for color perception. It is endemic on Pohnpei and was described by Oliver Sacks in Island of the Colorblind. Sacks went there with a Dane who had maskun, and the book narrates his experiences on the island. Maskun is relatively rare in humans but often shows up in communities with small gene-pools.

      Strange stuff no doubt.

      --
      Maybe we DID take the blue pill. You wouldn't remember anyway.
  2. Re:Careful by Roland+Piquepaille · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We humans aren't going to have any immunity to these microbes that have been isolated for 500000 years.

    1 - What tells you these microbes are necessarily harmful to humans? lack of contact with them for half a million years suggests humans may not be their carrier hosts of choice actually.

    2 - There are already thousands of deadly yet-unknown diseases lurking right here on the surface, in remote rainforests, waiting to be released by idiotic poacher. One or two more from the bottom of an underice lake won't make much difference.

    3 - So what? humanity will either evolve natural defenses, or science will help the natural process, and there are way too many humans on this planet already. I can't remember who said that Gaia (the planet Earth considered a complex living entity) has a form of AIDS disease that's running amok and depleting its resources from within, and it's called Humanity.

  3. Does anyone else find it amazing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That a liquid freshwater lake can survive that far underneath Antarctica? I would've imagined it to have either frozen, or at least be saltwater, which would enable it to stay liquid in low temperatures. If geothermal heat is responsible, then why isn't the ice around it melting, or is it just one of those finely balanced peculiarities of nature?

  4. I'm looking forward to... by Scoria · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... Vostok bottled water, a pleasant alternative to Evian. ;-)

    --
    Do you like German cars?
    1. Re:I'm looking forward to... by Landaras · · Score: 5, Funny

      Am I the only one who finds it fitting that Evian is "naive" backwards?

      - Neil Wehneman

      --
      My legal education, in nifty podcast format
  5. Europa testing by Killshot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They should use this lake to test ideas for drilling into the ice of Europa.

  6. Re:Careful by mr.scoot · · Score: 5, Funny
    We humans aren't going to have any immunity to these microbes that have been isolated for 500000 years. I hope whoever's studying these lakes takes appropriate precautions against both accidental release and theft by terrorist organizations.


    Just remember - every new supermicrobe is another potential blockbuster disaster movie.
  7. Re:how old? by pyrrhonist · · Score: 5, Funny
    How do the scientists determine this in a way using the scientific method?

    How theories evolve:

    1. Observe how ice accumulates.
    2. Take core sample.
    3. Compare with observations.
    4. Count accumlated ice.
    5. Craft beautiful research paper about the observations taken at the lake using careful measuments and research dating back almost 100 years culminating in theory that Lake Vostok is probably beneath about 500,000 years worth of ice give or take + or - 5%.
    6. Get forced to summerize paper to PR.
    7. Read spin in paper, "Lake untouched for 500,000 years!"
    8. Cry.

    "???" and "Profit!" are left as an exercise for the reader.

    --
    Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
  8. Re:Careful by cranos · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you're actually scared of that, you should probably live in fear of terrorists raiding your fridge.

    Ahh in Australia our government is prepared for that, we got special Fridge Magnets