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Russian Team Prepares To Penetrate Lake Vostok
Lanxon writes "Lake Vostok, which has been sealed off from the world for 14 million years, is about to be penetrated by a Russian drill bit. The lake, which lies four kilometers below the icy surface of Antarctica, is unique in that it's been completely isolated from the other 150 subglacial lakes on the continent for such a long time. It's also oligotropic, meaning that it's supersaturated with oxygen — levels of the element are 50 times higher than those found in most typical freshwater lakes."
I fail to see the need to drill to this lake so far below the surface. For one thing I would be worried about bringing back up who knows what with organisms and bacteria that we have not seen before that could be dangerous, also don't you think they would be contaminating this lake by drilling into it?
From the article:
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: "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.
I think it's similar to this mission at Lake Ellsworth.
My work here is dung.
They'll dig up a strange UFO with some doppleganger virus that causes the whole crew to kill each other.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
"Once you pop that bubble so to speak the place will never be the same"
That is true for almost everything we do on this planet whether we like it or not. It's our modus operandi.
"And what's the chance that there's organisms that are harmful to our current ecosystems? " Not a great chance. Harm is never the ultimate goal of microorganisms that are "harmful" to us. Harm is always a byproduct of being able to use us and in order to do that, microorganism must coexist with us for some time.
Randomness * really big numbers = very little probabilities.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
In Soviet Antarctica, buried lake penetrates drill hole!
Seriously. RTFA.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
So what *are* the ramifications of releasing a large pocket of oxygen into our current atmosphere, both for us and for the lake which has been sitting isolated for 14 million years?
Your fears are unfounded, from the article:
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: "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.
So they're taking the appropriate precautions there ...
Not so much being snarky as not being a scientist and am curious. It's great that we can go anywhere that's locked away and hidden, but should we?
The moon was "locked away" but we went there, didn't we?
Everyone needs to relax, there's an expedition to explore Lake Ellsworth and we've already explored an ultra-oligotrophic lake named Hodgson Lake and the results:
They found... nothing. The analyses show that the Hodgson Lake water 'is one of the clearest water lakes I have ever worked on, clearer than the distilled water we use in our lab, with almost nothing in it,' says Hodgson. The samples have virtually no nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and very low measurements of other chemical elements.
So they're going to take necessary precautions approved by a governing body and the odds are high that their results will just turn up some of the purest water we've ever seen. Of course the article notes that if they find extremophiles, it'll be a boon for studying the many protective enzymes the organisms need to live.
My work here is dung.
Is that a trick question?
It is a valid question, if you Drop the "What."
To be fair, theory and practice are in theory identical; in practice, not so much.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
It just means an environment which is low in nutrients.
The lake just happens to have high oxygen levels because of high pressure from the layers of ice - that doesn't make it oligotrophic.
No, it means that the lake has very few nutrients and is therefore not terribly productive biologically. see here. Many lakes that fall into the oligotropic chategory are also Oxygenated but it is not why they are oligotropic.
The real question I have is where that Oxygen is coming from. There probably isn't much photosynthesis going on at that depth which means either Oxygen is being imported to the system, it isn't being consumed very rapidly or it's being generated somehow.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
Cool to see they have a plan for getting info without causing harm. Hopefully it all works well.
The researchers involved on site have my respect. Here's some info about where they work:
Ave. winter temp: -65C, ave. summer temp: -30C
Altitude: 3488m
Record low temp: -89C. Good thing they are at altitude, as CO2 freezing point is -78C at 1atm.
Polar night for 130 days.
I like science... but I don't like science that much.
Never drink and slashdot.
Oh yeah "Ooh, aah", that's how it always starts. But then there's running and screaming.
It was clearly spelled out in the transmission from the pyramid. What part of "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" didn't you understand?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
This will inevitably lead to a new brand of vodka advertised as being made with "14 million year old, subglacial, super-oxygenated water".
Was the continent ever tropical/non-icy?
yes.
Free Martian Whores!
Gondwanaland's Law. This discussion's over.
Haida Manga
Would it be impolite to point out that she has accomplished far more in life than you or I have, or probably ever will? If Sarah Palin is dumb, therefore, there's a significantly greater than zero chance that you and I are even dumber.
That is based on the ridiculous notion that intelligence equates to fame. To make this point, I only have two words - "Jersey Shore".
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
I fail to see the need to drill to this lake so far below the surface. For one thing I would be worried about bringing back up who knows what with organisms and bacteria that we have not seen before that could be dangerous, also don't you think they would be contaminating this lake by drilling into it?
Any bacteria or other organism that are alive down there have spent the last 14 million years adapting to that environment.
It is a near certainty that they would find our bodies to be a completely inhospitable environment.
The dangerous bacteria are the ones that are adapted to human bodies -- or close enough bodies that it's only a small jump to humans. There are many, many viruses and bacteria that infect mammals but are incapable of reproducing inside our bodies. Antarctic under-ice lake bacteria? No chance.
The enemies of Democracy are
Except that's not even true.
His approval ratings are higher than Bush or Carter, he has had more victories for his agenda than most presidents in the first two years, has an astoundingly high approval rating OUTSIDE of the US, certainly higher than Bush and even Reagan during his first two years.
While the health care thing is probably a non-ideal solution, it is apparently too painful for republicans to realize that it was an almost exact copy of the bill originally drafted by Bob Dole and rejected by democrats for being "too conservative". Frankly, it sounds like partisan hackery or talking-point-itis to claim he's the most incompetent president on record.