Lake Vostok Reached

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Posted by samzenpus on Monday February 6, 2012 @02:32AM from the say-hello-to-the-elder-things dept.

First time accepted submitter Cyberax writes "After 30 years of drilling and weeks of media attention the Antarctic underground lake Vostok has been reached by Russian scientists (translated article). Deep drilling in the vicinity of Vostok Station in Antarctica began in the 1970s, when the existence of the reservoir was not yet known. Scientists are beginning paleoclimatic studies and further exploration of the lake will continue in 2013-2014."

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We all know what will happen by Trilkk · 2012-02-06 02:35 · Score: 5, Funny

Expecting a lone husky to be seen escaping the facility in 2 days time.
1. Re:We all know what will happen by Heed00 · 2012-02-06 02:43 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  "I know you gentlemen have been through a lot. But when you find the time...I'd rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!!"
  
  --
  Thought thinks itself.
2. Re:We all know what will happen by MrHanky · 2012-02-06 03:10 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  You'd need to sober them up first. Good luck with that.
3. Re:We all know what will happen by Xaoswolf · 2012-02-06 05:48 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I'm waiting for the albino penguins and shoggoths myself...
  
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  Xaotik Designs
By extraordinary coincidence... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2012-02-06 02:35 · Score: 5, Insightful

It turns out that the microbiological conditions of ancient lake Vostok are strikingly similar to those of early 21st century drilling mud.

The timeline altering implications of this discovery will keep scientists busy for decades!
1. Re:By extraordinary coincidence... by Cyberax · 2012-02-06 03:09 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Nope. The lake had almost been reached in 1998 but drilling was stopped to ensure that there would be no contamination. Several years were spent to devise a good solution for the problem of contamination. So the drilling has been resumed only in 2005 when the international community decided that it's safe enough.
  They're using a well filled with kerosene and freon to keep bacterial contamination away. Also, they're using sterilized parts without grease to minimize places where bacteria could hide.
2. Re:By extraordinary coincidence... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-02-06 03:11 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Was there ever any compromise on their drilling procedure?
  My understanding was that the Russians were using a method that was likely to cause contamination, despite pleas by western agencies for them to either a) hold off until better tech was developed or b) funding was established to allow them to use (donated) already-developed tech from the west that would be less contaminating?
  I'd guess since this is happening roughly according to their original schedule, the answer is "no" which would be tragic.
  According to the Google translation of the article the drilling was put on hold while the technology was developed at the St. Petersburg Institute. Western nations approved the Russian proposals after that at a 2003 meeting.
  So to answer you, the answer is "yes" which is not tragic.
Re:I am not sure the yeti will like that :) by elrous0 · 2012-02-06 02:40 · Score: 4, Funny

There was an episode of Northern Exposure where they tapped an ancient glacial lake and found that the water made women extremely horny. So there could be an upside here.

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Re:I am not sure the yeti will like that :) by localman57 · 2012-02-06 02:43 · Score: 5, Funny

Huh. I can see the "I Tapped That at Vostok" T-Shirts and Bumper Stickers now...
Considering climate change... by larys · 2012-02-06 02:43 · Score: 5, Funny

and how so few people/countries seem to be taking lifestyle-changing action against it, they wasted 30 years when in a few years or so, they might have the ice melt enough for them to reach the lake by just tapping on a thin sheet of it with the back of a pencil...
Stargate? by HiChris! · 2012-02-06 02:49 · Score: 5, Funny

Did they find the Stargate yet? or the weapons platform?
Re:I am not sure the yeti will like that :) by Abreu · 2012-02-06 02:54 · Score: 5, Funny

"In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming..."
Until some pesky humans drill into his cool jacuzzi...

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Re:Melt by Mente · 2012-02-06 03:00 · Score: 5, Funny

Bruce Willis could have drilled it in a matter of hours.
Re:Melt by pecosdave · 2012-02-06 03:08 · Score: 4, Funny

Only to find Chuck Norris waiting for him at the bottom.

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Something not mentioned - by pecosdave · 2012-02-06 03:09 · Score: 4, Interesting

How do we know this lake isn't connected to an underground river that could easily wash modern biology in and out?

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1. Re:Something not mentioned - by pz · 2012-02-06 03:17 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Or, just as short-sighted (and more common) is the idea that somehow that bit of matter got stuck in time and has remained impervious to the forces of random genetic mutation and evolution through the intervening years. Same idea comes across when we land on some asteroid, or explore some new bit of Mars, and loudly declare that it is a sample of matter left over from the birth of the solar system, or some such huey, as if it popped through a portal in time. The forces of nature still act on such things, even if they've been isolated from more large-scale interactions.
  Lake Vostok might (we think) have been sealed off for a very long time, but that doesn't mean it's a glimpse into the past, but, rather, a glimpse into a different version of the present.
  
  --
  
  Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
2. Re:Something not mentioned - by thrich81 · 2012-02-06 04:36 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  On the other hand, the rate of change of some systems is significantly slower than for many other systems. The obvious example is comparing the surface of the moon to the surface of the earth -- the earth had at least the same cratering events as the moon but the moon still displays a surface similar to what it was 2 billion or more years ago. Yes the surface of the moon is the present day surface but unlike the earth it is little changed and so is a good replica of the moon in the past. Geologically the same goes for those asteroids, Mars, etc. and biologically for Lake Vostok and many other isolated biological environments -- there is less competition and influx of new "innovations" from the larger outside world on the organisms there so the biologists say that the living things there have changed less than those in more open environments. The present is not the past but some places in the present are a lot like the past, indistinguishably so.
3. Re:Something not mentioned - by Verteiron · 2012-02-06 05:10 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  The goal here is not to see any living organisms there as a portal to the past. It is to see any organisms who have manged to survive in an airless, water-filled lake buried under 3 miles of ice for millions of years. It is fairly likely that, if there are any living organisms there, they're going to have evolved in some pretty interesting ways.
  
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Re:Now, the Predators come by Cyberax · 2012-02-06 03:11 · Score: 4, Informative

That was a result of mis-translation. The team is in constant communication but there were no official news releases.
Re:Melt by stjobe · 2012-02-06 03:16 · Score: 4, Informative

13,100 feet to the lake.
Been digging since 1974. That's 344 feet a year, or a foot per day. Hell, *I* could have dug quicker than that!
Or maybe they just had lots of problems, costs, setbacks, etc. associated with a 13,000 foot-long drill through a substance that nobody has ever drilled 13,000 down through?
It's also in the middle of the Antarctic, just about, and almost 900 miles from the Scott-Amundsen base at the South Pole. It's where the coldest temperature on earth has been measured, a whopping -128F (-89C). I'd love to see anyone dig a foot *that* day! :)

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"Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
Re:Now, the Predators come by Rogerborg · 2012-02-06 03:19 · Score: 5, Funny

The team is in constant communication

But all they've been communicating is "Send more ugly-bags-of-mostly-water".

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Re:Melt by stjobe · 2012-02-06 03:41 · Score: 4, Informative

How do you keep a hole 13,100 ft deep melted when the average temperature in summer is -30C (-22F), and in winter -65C (-85F)?
The warmest it ever gets is about -12C (10F) - that's a record by the way, the warmest ever measured at Vostok station.
It's not exactly a resort, you know:

The warmest recorded temperature at Vostok is -12.2 C (10.0 F), which occurred on 11 January 2002.[10]
The coldest month was August 1987 with a mean temperature of -75.4 C (-103.7 F) and the warmest month was December 1989 with mean of -28 C (-18 F).[9]
In addition to the extremely cold temperatures, other factors make Vostok one of the most difficult places on Earth for human habitation:
* An almost complete lack of moisture in the air.
* An average windspeed of 5 m/s (18 km/h) (11 mph), sometimes rising to as high as 27 m/s (97 km/h)(60 mph).
* An acute lack of oxygen because of its high altitude at 3,488 meters (11,444 ft).
* A higher ionization of the air.
* A polar night that lasts approximately 130 days, from mid April to late August,[13] including 80 continuous days of civil polar night (i.e. too dark to read, during which the Sun is over 6 degrees below the horizon.)
(source wikipedia)

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"Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley