timrohamro.com

The Russian scientists have claimed it as "breakthrough" by drilling successfully through the surface of the Lake Vostok, Antarctic lake, which has been isolated for millions of years.

Despite the protests by the Western countries, the Russian scientists accepted the mission as challenge and started to reveal many things, which had been wrapped under the ice sheet.

Lake Vostok is one of the largest subglacia lakes found under the surface of Antarctica. It is located at the southern Pole of Cold, beneath Russia's Vostok Station under the surface of the central East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is at 3,488 metres (11,444 ft) above mean sea level. The surface of this fresh water lake is approximately 4,000 m (13,100 ft) under the surface of the ice, which places it at approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) below sea level.

Everyone right from the explorers to scientists was curious to know what the lake folds mystery beneath ice. It could be a significant discovery after the scientists found from the sample of frozen water.

The scientists had begun drilling the surface of the lake more than two decades ago and now confirmed that lake was hidden under miles of ice for some 20 million years.

More researches will be conducted in December when the next Antarctic summer comes. One of the scientists said that about 50 cubic feet of kerosene and freon poured up to the surface from the boreshaft, proof that the lake water streamed up from beneath, froze, and blocked the hole.

The research was like exploring another planet. Valery Lukin, the head of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), which is in charge of the mission, said that the team reached the lake surface on Sunday.

Earlier, the mission was compared with the effort to Moon mission to experiment on the world's deepest lake. There is no place on Earth, which has been isolated for more than 20 million years.


10 Things What Might be Under Antarctica's Lake Vostok:

1. Scientists believe that the lake could be a habitat for microbes adapted to living in total darkness. Since they would have developed in isolation from any other life form, they would be unique to other species on Earth.

2. Possible discovery of a new strain of bacteria on the earth that humans were not aware of it. None has the clear idea whether organisms in the lake are friend or foe.

3. Scientists may discover living things similar to those on other planets.

4. Presence of oil and other minerals under the ice.

5. It could have been a Nazi base, Hitler's remains and secret documents might be revealed.

6. There could be tons of gases, including xenon, methane, and oxygen trapped underneath the surface, which could burst due to drilling.

7. Probability of nuclear energy. There were reports that the researchers and defense personnel were evacuated from the region as they were exposed to radioactivity.

8. The movie by John Carpenter's movie 'The Thing' (1982) could have been inspired by the lake. The lake might be the site for UFOs and aliens, who continued to live underneath the ice.

9. Since it has been isolated from the world, the amount of oxygen in the lake could be “10 to 20 times" more than anywhere else on Earth.

10. Lastly, the scientists could find nothing more and it may appear as only the white sheet of the Earth.