Antarctica
Image Credit: MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
There are over 140 subglacial lakes in Antarctica. As you would expect, those are lakes lying beneath the ice sheet. The largest is Lake Vostok, which lies beneath the Russian outpost, Vostok Station.
Lake Vostok occupies about the same area as Lake Ontario, but has about three times the volume. Its water has been isolated for perhaps 15 to 25 million years. The water is about 13,100 feet below the surface of the ice. It is so deep below sea level that heat from the Earth's core warms the bottom of the lake. The pressure of the ice sheet has dissolved oxygen and nitrogen into a supersaturated state - almost 50 times a normal freshwater lake. Quite possibly it is like a carbonated soft drink can. Punch a hole in the surface and it will spew like a geyser.
Adding to the mystery is the suspicion that the lake contains life. Wherever researchers have looked in Antarctica, they have discovered microbes. Similarly, they believe the hidden lake could be teeming with life.
Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest subglacial lake tells that a Russian drilling team is within 40 feet of the lake's surface. International scientists have been critical of the Russian drilling operations because they use kerosene to prevent the bore hole from collapsing. Scientists fear contamination of the lake from the improvised drilling fluid. ALso, some scientists are concerned that puncturing the surface cap could empty a third of the lake from spewing.
Perhaps in a few days we will know.
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