Russians Drill 4 Km Ice To Reach Lake Vostok 12,000 Ft. Below Antartica
A group of Russian scientists have been reported to finally drill in an ancient Antarctic lake totally unknown to the remaining part of the world. Lake Vostok didn't exist on the map until 1990 when it was detected by NASA on it's radar. The reason for it not being discovered is that it's buried under 12,000 feet of Antarctic ice for the last 10-20 million years. Living beings present in such a place would be adapted to survive without sunlight and depend only on the small amount of heat responsible for keeping the water on earth liquid. Such conditions exist elsewhere in the solar system including Europa (Jupiter's Moon) and Enceladus (Saturn's Moon). Hence the main purpose of this drill was to find clues about existence of life in the other parts of the solar system.
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Ancient Antarctic Subglacial Lake
Drilling is not an easy task but the Russians have been very good in this work so far. They have used kersosene and Freon to keep running their drill in deep ice. They have taken care not to affect nature in a major way. Their plan from the beginning was to drill the last 30 feet with a thermal drill melting the ice with warm and clean silicone oil. As soon as water is found out, the drill would stop and the lake water along with other contaminants would get pumped out by the low pressure after taking the drill out. The liquid left in the hole would then be left to freeze in a plug. Russians would drill in the ice next year to get the lake water sample. The Russians are planning effectively and so far their hard work has shown positive results. But for now nothing can be said until the reports come out about what's really happening in the lake water.
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Ancient Antarctic Subglacial Lake
Drilling is not an easy task but the Russians have been very good in this work so far. They have used kersosene and Freon to keep running their drill in deep ice. They have taken care not to affect nature in a major way. Their plan from the beginning was to drill the last 30 feet with a thermal drill melting the ice with warm and clean silicone oil. As soon as water is found out, the drill would stop and the lake water along with other contaminants would get pumped out by the low pressure after taking the drill out. The liquid left in the hole would then be left to freeze in a plug. Russians would drill in the ice next year to get the lake water sample. The Russians are planning effectively and so far their hard work has shown positive results. But for now nothing can be said until the reports come out about what's really happening in the lake water.
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