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Drilling Begins At Lake Hidden Beneath Antarctic

Posted by timothy on from the new-places-to-advertise dept.

New submitter stonetony writes with this excerpt from the BBC: "A team of 12 scientists and engineers has begun work at remote Lake Ellsworth. They are using a high-pressure hose and sterilised water at near boiling point to blast a passage through more than two miles of ice. The aim is to analyse ice waters isolated for up to 500,000 years. The team of 12 scientists and engineers is using sterilised water at near boiling point to blast a passage through the ice to waters isolated for up to half a million years. The process of opening a bore-hole is expected to last five days and will be followed by a rapid sampling operation before the ice refreezes."

10 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. How are they doing this... by msauve · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is there any chance that they're using sterile water heated to almost the boiling point to melt a passage through ice to get to water isolated for up to 5e5 years?

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:How are they doing this... by Ambiguous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're all missing the point that they're using water near 100C to bore through ice to get at water that's been isolated for as much as 500 millennia.

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      Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
    2. Re:How are they doing this... by muon-catalyzed · · Score: 4, Funny

      sterile or not, isolated for 500,000 years.., now is the time to open Pandora's ice box, 21.12.2012 is approaching.

      /s

    3. Re:How are they doing this... by Twigmon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Indeed, however, this is a dupe of this post: http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/12/13/2126234/drilling-begins-at-lake-hidden-beneath-antarctic

    4. Re:How are they doing this... by Ambiguous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Let it be known that I was actually moderated "-1 Redundant" on this. The irony is palpable.

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      Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
  2. Questions from the summary by orson_of_fort_worth · · Score: 5, Funny

    The summary wasn't clear so my questions are: Is the water sterilized? How hot is the water in the hose? How long has the lake water been isolated? Also, Is the water sterilized? How hot is the water in the hose? How long has the lake water been isolated?

    1. Re:Questions from the summary by Ambiguous+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      1) Yes
      2) Almost boiling!
      3) 500,000 years
      4) Indeed
      5) Nearly 100 degrees celsius
      6) 500 millennia

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      Their may be a grammatical error, misspeling, or evn a typo in this post.
  3. Re:Mayans by AaronLS · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe it's not a drill bit at all, but some sort of really hot water. I'm not really sure though.

  4. Re:Cthulhu - Just in time by AaronLS · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If not, someone should perhaps start some projects like this, such that doomsday cults funnel their money into useful research projects. Win-win for everyone, unless the cult turns out to be right.

  5. Title arriving: by smittyoneeach · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Ode to a Small Lump of Greenish Water that Turned to into Putty I Found in my Antarctic Pit That I Reached Using Slightly Sub-Gaseous Phase Water One Midsummer Morning, Which Turned Out to be Cthulhu's Placenta, There in His R'lyeh Prison, Turning What was Going to be my Nobel Prize Science Project into a Sudden Descent into Eldricht Helllllllllllaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahah theMayansDidIttheMayansDidIttheMayansDidIttheMayansDidIt!!!!!!!! "

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear