Lake Sealed Under Ice for 15 Million Years
The 14,000 square kilometer Lake Vostok is truly one of the world's last
unexplored frontiers. It is completely sealed under the Antarctic ice
sheet, isolated from the air above for more than 15 million years.
Its initial discovery was serendipitous for the Russians. They had been
drilling ice cores at Vostok base for years before aerial radar surveys
mapped the lake below in 1993. Their polar program, bereft of finance by
the Soviet collapse, suddenly had a flagship project out of Jules Verne:
penetrate the lake.
Having sparked the longest scientific dispute ever to mark the white
continent, they nearly have. But the worry remains that after 15 million
years of pristine existence, first contact with Lake Vostok will also
mean its first pollution.
Read more:
http://ow.ly/3TSuP
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