Prehistoric subglacial lake found - first look into 20 Million year old site

[Wimbo]

Lake Vostok makes waves on the Web

A team of Russian scientists says it has unearthed the prehistoric subglacial Lake Vostok, two-and-a-half miles below sea level, opening up an ancient and possibly undiscovered world of life below the surface of the earth.
Word of the possible discovery made a splash on the Web, where a wave of searches on "lake vostok" suddenly surged.
What is it?
Lake Vostok is one of 140 subglacial lakes found under the surface of Antarctica. The overlying layer of ice could be somewhere around 400,000 years old. But the lake water below could be somewhere around 20 million years old. A team of Russian researches have been drilling since January to reach the lake. But attempts to drill down have been made since the lake was discovered in 1996.
What did the Russian scientists accomplish?
The field researchers managed to drill down through approximately 2.5 miles of ice and claim they have hit the subglacial Lake Vostok, a body of water the size of Lake Ontario. John C. Priscu, an Antarctic researcher at Montana State University, says that if the Russians have actually hit the lake, it "opens the doors for ensuing subglacial science." NASA is also following the potential breakthrough, as the climate so far below the earth could offer insight into extraterrestrial life in outer space.

read more... http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/lake-vostok-makes-waves-225755527.html

 

[jimmy40]

deepest water well ever drilled.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

deepest water well ever drilled.

Contains insane, dormant virus that ended the dinosaurs. Scientists now predicting Earth's doom as the last days in December.

 

[rkell87]

Contains insane, dormant virus that ended the dinosaurs. Scientists now predicting Earth's doom as the last days in December.

:laugh2:

 

[arglebargle]

Contains insane, dormant virus that ended the dinosaurs. Scientists now predicting Earth's doom as the last days in December.

I heard it will unleash the zombie plague....

 

[SaltwaterServr]

I heard it will unleash the zombie plague....

Meh. I've got an army of necrophiliacs to counter the zombie threat.

 

[Longboysfan]

I heard it will unleash the zombie plague....

Where everyone becomes and Eagles fan??????

 

[YosemiteSam]

Meh. I've got an army of necrophiliacs to counter the zombie threat.

Dude! That is nasty! :laugh2:

 

[joseephuss]

I saw part of this story a few days ago. At that time they had lost contact with the scientists. No one had heard from them in about 6 days. That led much comical speculation on the internet about how the scientists had probably stumbled into the beginning of a horror flick. References to the The Thing seemed to be the most dominate in the blogs.

 

[kimrose]

I saw part of this story a few days ago. At that time they had lost contact with the scientists. No one had heard from them in about 6 days. That led much comical speculation on the internet about how the scientists had probably stumbled into the beginning of a horror flick. References to the The Thing seemed to be the most dominate in the blogs.

:laugh1:

 

[iceberg]

I heard it will unleash the zombie plague....

there's a reason i'm loading up on guns and ammo!!!

 

[Mitcha68]

They drilled till they hit hell, heard screams and moans from deep in the earth. :laugh1:

 

[danielofthesaints]

I watched an hour or so long documentary over Lake Vostok about 1.5 years ago. It seems like the Yahoo article doesn't mention anything that was already known. Years ago, they were drilling down and realized there could be actual liquid water miles below the ice due to a massive concentration of salt that lowers the freezing point of the water. The exciting thing was that this body of water hadn't seen the light of day for millions of years, and scientists were excited about the multitude of new organisms they could discover. This made them abort mission because they wanted to prevent contamination of the lake with the external environment. Last I heard, NASA is building a device that will keep contamination out of the lake, but will provide entry into the abyss as well. Their method is sending a device down that simultaneously drills through the ice at the same time it catalyzes the formation of frozen ice above it. Once it makes its way to the solid-liquid barrier, it will decontaminate itself and eject a probe out into the lake. This probe will have the capability to provide visual feedback of the lake. The fascinating thing is it will be able to obtain samples of its environment and relay genetic information back to headquarters.

 

[Wimbo]

I watched an hour or so long documentary over Lake Vostok about 1.5 years ago. It seems like the Yahoo article doesn't mention anything that was already known. Years ago, they were drilling down and realized there could be actual liquid water miles below the ice due to a massive concentration of salt that lowers the freezing point of the water. The exciting thing was that this body of water hadn't seen the light of day for millions of years, and scientists were excited about the multitude of new organisms they could discover. This made them abort mission because they wanted to prevent contamination of the lake with the external environment. Last I heard, NASA is building a device that will keep contamination out of the lake, but will provide entry into the abyss as well. Their method is sending a device down that simultaneously drills through the ice at the same time it catalyzes the formation of frozen ice above it. Once it makes its way to the solid-liquid barrier, it will decontaminate itself and eject a probe out into the lake. This probe will have the capability to provide visual feedback of the lake. The fascinating thing is it will be able to obtain samples of its environment and relay genetic information back to headquarters.

That is cool. The full article mentioned NASA assistance, but not in that detail.

 

[danielofthesaints]

That is cool. The full article mentioned NASA assistance, but not in that detail.

Yeah bud. Stuff like this is quite extraordinary. Leave it to a Yahoo article to bring something out of hiding and present it as new.

 

[vta]

I watched an hour or so long documentary over Lake Vostok about 1.5 years ago. It seems like the Yahoo article doesn't mention anything that was already known. Years ago, they were drilling down and realized there could be actual liquid water miles below the ice due to a massive concentration of salt that lowers the freezing point of the water. The exciting thing was that this body of water hadn't seen the light of day for millions of years, and scientists were excited about the multitude of new organisms they could discover. This made them abort mission because they wanted to prevent contamination of the lake with the external environment. Last I heard, NASA is building a device that will keep contamination out of the lake, but will provide entry into the abyss as well. Their method is sending a device down that simultaneously drills through the ice at the same time it catalyzes the formation of frozen ice above it. Once it makes its way to the solid-liquid barrier, it will decontaminate itself and eject a probe out into the lake. This probe will have the capability to provide visual feedback of the lake. The fascinating thing is it will be able to obtain samples of its environment and relay genetic information back to headquarters.

That is amazing.

 

[danielofthesaints]

Here is the BBC documentary if anyone is interested...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APaBqRp27zU

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Here is the BBC documentary if anyone is interested...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APaBqRp27zU

Watching it right now. Greatly appreciated.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Here is the BBC documentary if anyone is interested...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APaBqRp27zU

"It's mission (the Galileo space probe) was to send back data from Jupiter and its 12 orbiting moons."

12 moons, 66 moons, who's counting?

 

[Hoofbite]

Here is the BBC documentary if anyone is interested...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APaBqRp27zU

******. Too late to get into an hour long program right now.

Have to watch tomorrow. Thanks for the link.