"Lake Vostok: One Million Years Without Sunlight" Topic

If/when it is drilled and explored, do you think they will find life?

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CC
PS. Basic info about the lake:
Vostok, Lake (vä'stôk) , c.3,900 sq mi (10,000 sq km), c.155 mi (250 km) long and 30 mi (50 km) at its greatest width, in East Antartica beneath the remote Vostok research station. One of the largest subglacial lakes in Antarctica, the presumably freshwater lake is located beneath c.2.5 mi (4 km) of ice, and is 30 to 1,650 ft (10–500 m) deep. It is divided into north and south basins, which are separated by an underwater ridge. Since the lake was discovered in 1996, scientists have speculated it may hold microbes that have been isolated for millions of years, but have not drilled down to its waters for fear of contaminating them. Cores drilled to within c.500 ft (150 m) of the lake have returned ice samples some 420,000 years old.
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Thanks for the links. VERY interesting. Who knows whats down there…don't disturb it, lest the Great Cthulu awaken!

Mike

Neat information, the first thing that I thought when I started to read this was Europa. Turns out that what other were thinking as well.

heres what happens when you invade where you arnt wanted…
imdb.com/title/tt0060741
saw this as a kid, scared the s out of me.
never drill for anything in antartica.

No one knowses what we'll finds, precious.

How's the fishing there?

OFM, I caught this little beauty on a nearby pond:

picture

CC

<<OFM, I caught this little beauty on a nearby pond:>>

CC,

how the hell many times must I tell you to stop fishing in our community's decorative lakes?!! You know how much it upsets the HOA…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Reminds me of that old 70's song from Pat Garrett and Billy the kid…(sort of)…'Knock, Knock, Knocking on R'yleh's Door'….(the Russians obviously have not read HP Lovecraft recently…or they'd KNOW better)…

Never heard of that movie…but???
link

for those who want 'more' of it???

Speaking of FROZEN continents under kilometers of ICE…isn't most of GREENLAND(other than coasts)…basically one big GLACIER kilometers deep??? do we really KNOW what is under all that ice either????

Now we KNOW they've found 'baby plesiosaur' bones and other dino bones at some locations in Antarctica…so we KNOW it had to have some 'ecosystem' at some time…(maybe connected during 'Pangea' landmass timeframe???)

***slish…jingle, jingle…slish****
Sgt DWW

They'll finally have to come out and reveal the existence of the Secret Antarctic Nazi Underground Base, and the Lost Battalion!

uh huh…they'll just say that "they found nothing"…

Isn't that where the predators hid their alien coming of age temple? :D

Want to know?

Read this:

link

What's keeping the water liquid down there? Thermal vents?

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link
resa.net/nasa/antarctica.htm

Wouldn't any thermal vents be detectable on infrared, or is it too deep for that?

CC

The boffins think it may be a combination of friction, pressure and possible geothermal activity. Apparently there are all sort of weird rivers and lakes under ice sheets, creating a whole network under the ice. The water may actually be flowing into the lake from hundreds of miles away…

For what it's worth:
Dateline 1979/1980:
A silicate sphere found on the Pacific Ocean floor has been identified as having come from space. Its trace elements closely match those found in primitive solar system material.

Saw the pic, not online – looked like a sphere that you would expect to find in space. It's a very small item, the picture, about half the size of a fist, was enlarged 52,000 times.

Lots of lakes under that ice!

Link
Link

Maybe it's just me. But those links took a bit to open.

CC

Wow. This is promising:

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CC

My bet is the methanogenic and methanovorous bacteria will have a quite complex little ecology going under there by now . . .

Yes, I bet there IS life.

I'd say life is virtually guaranteed. When we finally go to Europa, we are going to have to really work hard to make the probe as sterile as possible. Bake it, irradiate it, dunk it in bleach…whatever. We don't want to take any chances contaminating the only other place in the solar system that has a real chance of having life.

What's keeping the water liquid down there?
The Game Master

They may find something really, really bad:

TMP link

Dan

And the argument continues . . . with the Russians pushing on:

TMP link

Dan

"Thanks for the links. VERY interesting. Who knows whats down there…don't disturb it, lest the Great Cthulu awaken!"

Oh, fer cryin' out loud! Wake him up already! He's been sleeping in long enough, and it's past time he did some work around here!

Leland R. Erickson

Pffft. "fear of hurting the microbes"

Heck, they should be drilling for oil in there – it's not like it'd bother anyone! I must say I find myself staggeringly unconcerned about the welfare of a few microbes which haven't been needed for thousands of years anyway…

..unless, of course, they unleash the zombie plague! (rushes off to dig out his Ambush Z rules)

I, for one, welcome our non-Euclidean-geometric Sub-Antarctic glacial overlords. IA! IA! Slush-thulu Puppy fthagn!

Apparently they are through: link

'The Navy vs. the Night Monsters'
Saw worse Night Monsters, in my long life

The bust line is a giveaway that she is not fully human…

Anyway, I haven't seen news of any eldritch, mocking cries of "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!" having been heard on the site. Nor yet any mention of albino penquins anywhere. Must be a conspiracy! Especially since the natzis where also there – and do we see a mention of them in the official communications? No!
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Get ready . . .

TMP link

Dan