Russians drill into previously untouched Lake Vostok below Antarctic glacier

[flighter]

Russian scientists have drilled into the vast, dark and never-
before-touched Lake Vostok 2.2 miles below the surface of Antarctica, the state-run Russian news agency RIA Novosti said Monday.

“Yesterday, our scientists stopped drilling at the depth of 3,768 meters and reached the surface of the subglacial lake,” the news agency quoted a source as saying. The team had “finally managed to pierce” the ice sheet into Vostok, the source said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...m_national_pop

[Paul Ward]

I remember reading about this a couple of years ago. I thought they were supposed to be assembling an international team and planning carefully how to make the final breach without polluting the lake?

Maybe they got impatient (20 years drilling!) and/or wanted a success for political reasons.

Interesting to see what they find down there. There is an idea that the subglacial lakes are interconnected from time to time under the ice, so not as isolated from each other after all, or the rest of the world either.

Another similar attempt in the offing here at Lake Ellsworth:

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/press/pr...se.php?id=1697

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16538495