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AP file
Russian researchers at the Vostok station in Antarctica pose for a picture after reaching Lake Vostok in February 2012. Scientists hold a sign reading "05.02.12, Vostok station, boreshaft 5gr, lake at depth 3769.3 metres." The researchers now report that they have brought up fresh samples from the borehole.
Russian researchers say they have brought up fresh samples of clear ice from Antarctica's Lake Vostok, a huge reservoir of freshwater more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) beneath the surface.
Lake Vostok could contain water and perhaps living organisms that have been sitting undisturbed in the deep dark for up to 20 million years. The drilling operation also could set a precedent for far more ambitious efforts to find life beneath the ice of the Jovian moon Europa or the Saturnian moon Enceladus.
Because of the potential for contamination, scientists have been taking extreme care at Lake Vostok, which is situated 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) from the South Pole in East Antarctica. A year ago, the Russian drilling team reached the lake and brought up water samples. Some of the water was even served to Vladimir Putin, who was then Russia's prime minister and is now the country's president. But it wasn't clear whether those samples were actually from the lake or from the glacier above the lake, the Russian news service RIA Novosti reported.
This year's drilling operation is aimed at bringing up samples that can be linked more definitively to the lake itself.
"The first core of transparent lake ice, 2 meters long, was obtained on Jan. 10 at a depth of 3,406 meters," Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute said in a statement. "Inside it was a vertical channel filled with white bubble-rich ice."
The institute said that drilling operations would be extended another 24 meters with the existing cables, and that new cables were being delivered to the Vostok research station. The core samples were to be subjected to chemical and biological analysis.
Lake Vostok is about 160 miles (250 kilometers) long and 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide, making it the largest of Antarctica's nearly 400 subglacial lakes. Last year's drilling operation drew up samples from a depth of 12,366 feet (2.34 miles, or 3,769 meters). In October, Russian team members reported finding no native life within those samples. They said the only microbes they detected were traced to contaminants from the drilling oil.
The lake could serve as a laboratory for studying what Antarctica's climate and ecosystem was like millions of years ago. It may contain creatures unlike any that exist today. And as ambitious as all that sounds, the Vostok operation is seen as a mere warmup for future sampling missions to Europa, Enceladus and perhaps other icy moons in the solar system.
Planetary scientists see ample evidence that liquid water exists on those worlds, miles beneath the icy surface, and astrobiologists have theorized that internal heat may provide enough energy for organisms living within those hidden oceans.
Correction for 1:30 p.m. ET Jan. 14: I initially described Vostok station as 800 miles east of the South Pole, but that's not quite right: All directions from the South Pole are north, as commenters have pointed out. There is an "east" and "west" to the continent, and Vostok happens to be in East Antarctica. I've changed the reference to the location accordingly.
More about the mysteries beneath the ice:
- Saturn moon eyed for sample return mission
- Satellite shows Russia's 'moon shot' ice station
- Mission to drill into Antarctica's Lake Ellsworth suspended
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Some of the water was even served to Vladimir Putin, who was then Russia's prime minister and is now the country's president.
I hope there weren't any dangerous preserved prehistoric microbes in that water he drank .
They should keep a good watch on Vladimir just in case .
Remind me of parasite movie that took over the mind. Are we even sure that he is still the same as before?
Prometheus was a movie, not a documentary. It's not like he impregnated a comrade with a giant squid, ya know.
Wow, how much technology did they actually use to test the water before they decided to let people drink from it? Especially a world leader! Did they have a backup ruler in mind if he turned green,eyes glazed over, his flesh started looking like scales, blistered and his lips puckered up without a cute pinup girl around?
For all we know, there might be some incredibly powerful tiny organism just slumbering that we bring up, mother nature was keeping under tight wraps. Leave it to us, to let it out. Sort of like Pandora's box. It ends up wiping man out.
Then some aliens pay our planet a visit years later, and think wow, a another planet where the superior intelligent evolve from land into the sea! What are the chances?
Probably just a little more than the technology used to test the water that comes from your well if you have one or your municipal water system if that is your source of water. People have become so paranoid of what they perceive is in our natural surroundings and yet are oblivious of the actual hazards that occur in our manufactured lives, Ironically Hospitals which are where everyone goes when they need emergency care have proved to be the biggest sources of danger to humans from viral and bacteriological infections. Personally I feel safer drinker the water from the spring fed stream on my property than I would drinking water from a municipal water source where it has been treated with chlorine and fluoride and whatever else the government decided they think is good for us.
LostInThePineBarrens
I was being facetious, I actually know about the testing. In addition to owning a farm, and having studied geology, and a few other ologies. Been a long night and was trying to be silly ( double face Palm!) that will teach me to try that. Only my third attempt ever. Maybe I should stick to just being serious all the time! :P
Humour and satire are often difficult to convey via Newsvine....
Thank heavens for emoticons! ;-p
Don't worry, Haliburton will frac it ASAP so that it is as polluted as the water here in the US.
I hope that they didn't test it before giving it to [Ras]Putin. And I punctuate that with a {|;-) .
They're looking for new sources of fresh water, untainted by civilization, that they can lay claim to and sell when the world runs out of water.
This is great...a new place to go ice fishing......I wonder if you need a license?
It is a scam, marked as advertising, and reported.
Something off in this article - you can not go east of the south pole, you can only go north. What I believe they meant was 800 miles north of the south pole along an east (90 degree) line of longitude.
I don't believe Putin drank any of the water. That would have been really risky.
Leave the yellow snow alone too while yer at it.....
Yea, yea, make jokes, well Comrade Putin (actually he is my cousin), phoned me just a few minutes ago and it was a SKYPE call, HE HAS A FULL HEAD OF HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, three foot long!!!!and said something to me about the private men's ...coff...coff commercials on TV, well he said, it is past the 4 hour limit, actually up to 24 hours, and he wanted to know if he should go to the emergeny room, like the commercials recommend. I told him if it was like "that" for 24 hours, forget the emergency room, and go straight to the morgue, and make sure you are buried an additional foot into the earth. I do not know why but he had this large embarassing smile and said he could not get rid of it. Well tomorrow I get some sent to me by Comrade Cousin Vlady by Russian super express overnight delivery(that takes 16 days) and I will update everyone on the outcome. He said he wanted to get more , and I let him know according to absolutely reliable unbiased US scientists that the 2.3 miles of ice is projected to melt within 3 weeks due to global warming, and that then we can turn it into a tropical wonderland of pristine beaches, so we are planning the project now, hotels, Antarctic Disneyland, and of course the lake is great for Sea World Antarctica...boy I can't wait to go. Thank God for global warming, swimming in Antartica......WOW......oops doorbell ringing again, probably those stupid CIA clowns bugging me again, how many top secrets can I give these guys??????? Ca't they do their own work????? stupid clowns...got to go
Why are we wasting time talking about it? Let's get to fracking!
yeah he may sprout hair and walk around with a club...lol
This article states that Lake Vostok is east of the South Pole. "Because of the potential for contamination, scientists have been taking extreme care at Lake Vostok, which is situated 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) east of the South Pole." That's an impossibility. There is no east from the South Pole. That seems to be a rather careless error.
There is only north from the south pole, Traveling in any direction from the south pole is traveling north.
There is a standard, 0 and 180 being north and south respectively.
Jason, north and south latitude lines only go up to 90 degrees, not 180. 90 degrees north, 90 degrees south. 0 degrees is the equator.
Dino is right, there is no east of the South Pole. there's only north of the South Pole. (if you are not talking magnetic poles)
IMHO, there is longitude though, which is measured plus and minus from the Greenwich Meridian. It is only undefined at the South Pole exactly, anywhere North of the Pole has a longitude and therefore, a direction, East or West.
I worked in Antarctica for two summers, and it is true that from the south pole all directions are north but you have to have a frame of reference when you are traveling to a site on the polar plateau. So you do use the compass bearings North, East and West and from McMurdo Station you have to go South to reach the South Pole, as it were!!
I'm jealous! Lucky stiff....
Maybe it really should have said," 800 miles North of the South pole on the 106* East Meridian".
They could have just said it's 800 miles from the South Pole. It's not like any of us need to go there anytime soon.
North...south......wherever you go....there you are!
Doug, you still need a direction to know where the lake is. If you were to tell someone, not familiar with the United States, that Washington, D.C. was 800 miles from St. Louis, MO, how would they know where to look?
Okie is correct, the South Pole, exactly 90 degrees south is only a point so longitude is undefined but, move even a fraction of a micrometer off of that point and you have some defined longitude between 0 and 360 degrees. Of course, moving that fraction of a micrometer also means you are no longer at the South Pole because the South Pole would then be south of you.
Weird, it wouldn't let me edit even thought it said I could.
Anyway, something else to keep in mind, at Lake Vostok, if you needed to got to the South Pole, it would be south and West of you.
And while we're at it, what is 'Antarctic' anyway? Is it like, the Arctic, only with ants? Seems pretty cold for ants, but whatever.
@Doug, the ant in antarctic can be considered to mean opposite. Therefore the opposite arctic.
Yes, sorry, that was a bit careless, I was relying on how the location was described elsewhere. I've revised the description so that it makes more sense: 800 miles from the South Pole in East Antarctica. Thanks for setting me straight.
Mother Earth,quite an interesting place.
Although interesting and perhaps the oldest pristine environment on earth , 20 million years ain't that long ago... that only takes us partially back to the age of the dinosaurs. My guess is that any microbial life that managed to survive in that lake will be quite similar to the stuff that presently lives in other underground reservoirs around the world. It is estimated that multi-celular organisms first showed up on earth 700 to 1000 million years ago, a pristine environment on earth that old would be a real find. That said, it is critical from a scientific point of view to keep that lake free of present day contamination. Anything that managed to survive down there for twenty million years would be very interesting.
Agreed. Any life found that has been in an isolated ecosystem for 20 million years would be very interesting.
Living organisms that have been sitting undisturbed in the deep dark for up to 20 million years that can KILL off most life as we know it. We let the fools do it.
Actually we have organisms in Yellowstone that can kill off most of life as we know it, but they can't exist everywhere.
Slow down, stop worrying.
I know that it killed me when it was time to leave Yellowstone....
Any microbes that have been sitting undisturbed for 20 million years deep under the ice are probably not well suited to invade the human body. They would be adapted to living off the minerals and salts, not invading a living organism. However, I wouldn't chance it, and I'll bet that Putin didn't either.
Instead of doing all this difficult, expensive drilling, they should probably just wait for a few more decades of global warming. We'll be building summer cabins on the shores of Lake Vostok.
Are you forgetting the huge hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic? Even now its dangerous to be out in the sun down there for more than 5-10 minutes...and that's with SPF-90 sunblock. And should the earth warm up enough for summer cabins at Lake Vostok, the melting of the polar ice caps would leave most of Antarctica covered by sea water. Including Lake Vostok.
You say global warming, I say human encroachment!
Darn, Allison's right. Even when you account for the height of the ice pack, the surface of Lake Vostok is still about 1600 ft below today's sea level. How am I going to unload that timeshare I bought?
EarlyOut-1524710 - You bought a Time share on Lake Vostok? Let me tell you about this bridge...
This is probably going to go as badly as my other business venture. My brother convinced me that global warming will turn central CT into savanna. I bought two Land Rovers, and started offering tours to see the migrating wildebeest. Things aren't going so well.
Reminds me of when Admiral Rickover drank nuclear reactor water to prove to congress that it was safe. He lived a long time after that. hmmmmm
Oooooooooooooh,thats where the Reds Hid the Rison!
it may sound cool and all..discovering a pristine lake but pleease give me a break..(taking all precautions not to contaminate it) people are the contamination .. look at our earth....jeeeze....
Time to call Kurt Russell.
I was thinking maybe Godzilla?
Godzilla is a GOD that the dinosaurs worshipped.
Ok, Apparently we are not that worried about the arctics and polar ice caps melting, after all we keep sending people to these locations using gas heaters, vehicles, and other ice warming agents, along with drilling and everything else that goes with that!
theyshould have peed in it before they gave it to him.
How do you know they didn't? Putin is, after all, an odd duck to put it mildly.
One reason the "bubble rich ice" is important is because it trapped and preserved air from distant times so we can find out the CO2, CH4, and other chemical content in the past and see if there are cycles, etc. So far, the Vostok work shows there are cycles BUT, over the last 420,000 years and -spot checking- over the last 21,000,000 years the CO2 content never exceeded 294 ppm. It's now around 390 ppm. So much for the know-it-alls claiming cycles explain today's CO2! And CH4 today shows an even bigger %age jump over past maximums.
The core samples taken from various locations back up the data that a much higher concentration of CO2 is present. The last century has been a real killer.
Where's the south pole?
Head east from the West Pole, you can't miss it.
2468z Where's the south pole?
Underneath Santa's Clause's work shop. Just be careful of the first big step, and then hold on tight. That is one very, very,very, very, long pole.And there are no presents when you get there [:-O
Doug-950479
Head east from the West Pole, you can't miss it.
Did you hear about the fights between West and South in their relationship? Seems they had problems with pole dancers fighting over who is more attractive. Then an affair with East pole was revealed. Causing all sorts of problems for folks just trying to make a living, when East switched with South. Mother Nature had to step in and ordered the South Pole to relocate to relocate. o.O
"The Walking Putin" will turn into a zombie
THE THING!!!!
An intellectual carrot - the mind boggles!
Yeah, Marshall Dillon was a mean monster.
how is it a lake if they had to take a core sample from it, wouldn't it be considered part of the glacier?
It's a subglacial lake, which exits under sheets of ice. The one mentioned above is the largest found, thus far. Pretty cool.
Darn! The subglacial lake exists under sheets of ice, not exits. Hate it when I do that.
Me too!
Allison there's a geological process called "isostatic recovery." Most likely if the Antarctic ice melts the land form will actually rise due to the removal of all that ice weight. You still might not want a cabin right on the lake as we don't know yet what lives in that 20 million year old water.
Thomas-3977074-( You still might not want a cabin right on the lake as we don't know yet what lives in that 20 million year old water)
If something is still alive down there,(Or not but some will snake oil frauds will claim THEY found something) just wait, someone will try to make a beauty product out of it. Stating they have found the fountain of youth. Only instead of it being in Central American, it is at the South Pole. Which as everybody KNOWS was once located at a more northern location and so fits the legends of eternal youth after all!(face palm) People will pay a fortune to think they will be looking young forever. Just step right up folks, plunk down your money for some precious water drops. :oP
Please read this petition and if you agree with it, please sign it. Thank you.
"Inside it was a vertical channel filled with white bubble-rich ice."
- To be served at Starbucks in March!
...at $25 a cup!
800 miles EAST of the South Pole? Everything is NORTH of the South Pole. Everything.
I would think that finding no microbial life would be almost as interesting as finding some unique from of life. It will be very interesting to see what they find when they can take samples from deeper in the lake, especially from the bottom.
James Hoffa is buried in the lake.
Joe, that made me laugh. Thank you.
Let me clarify - I was thinking of Jimmy Hoffa due to his, um, so called connections and the on going "where is Hoffa buried" saga. I am pro-labor, however. Now back to science.
the conspiracy theory "working closely with pharmaceutical companies to create a new disease and create a managed solution (not a cure) and of course the right kickbacks close any holes"