Russian explorers reach ancient Antarctic submerged lake

Feb 8, 2012, 14:51 GMT

Moscow - Russian drillers have reached a massive lake under the Antarctic ice cap that had been sealed off from the rest of the world for a half million years, the Ministry of Natural Resources announced Wednesday, according to Itar-Tass news agency.

Scientists broke through the Antarctic ice sheet to tap into Lake Vostok's waters at a depth of 3,789.3 metres. Drilling began in the 1970s.

The ice sheet covering Antarctica's surface is believed to be some 500,000 years old. Russia media described the breakthrough as the most significant event in Antarctic exploration in a century.

An ice core sample was recovered during the drilling. Vostok Lake is roughly similar in size to the US-Canadian Lake Ontario, according to Russian estimates.

Lake Vostok's water may have been isolated from the rest of the Earth's environment for as long as 25 million years, according to some estimates.

Scientists hope that analysis of the ice core, as well as findings by a remote-controlled robot to be sent into the lake, will give a new window on the state of the Earth's environment during the Pleistocene era, a period sometimes referred to as the Ice Age.

The liquid lake, which lies on the bedrock below Antarctica's permanent ice sheet, could contain microorganisms millions of years old, the report said.

Russian seismologists discovered Lake Vostok in the early 1960s.

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