Lake Vostok ★ The Lost World of Lake Vostok Documentary - Antarctica Station Secrets озеро восток

In 1957 the Russians established a remote base in Antarctica — the Vostok station. It soon became a byword for hardship — dependent on an epic annual 1000km tractor journey from the coast for its supplies. The coldest temperature ever found on Earth (-89°C) was recorded here on the 21st July 1983.

It’s an unlikely setting for a lake of liquid water. But in the 1970′s a British team used airborne radar to see beneath the ice, mapping the mountainous land buried by the Antarctic ice sheet. Flying near the Vostok base their radar trace suddenly went flat. They guessed that the flat trace could only be from water. It was the first evidence that the ice could be hiding a great secret.

But 20 years passed before their suspicions were confirmed, when satellites finally revealed that there was an enormous lake under the Vostok base. It is one of the largest lakes in the world — at 10,000 square km it’s about the extent of Lake Ontario, but about twice as deep (500m in places). The theory was that it could only exist because the ice acts like a giant insulating blanket, trapping enough of the earth’s heat to melt the very bottom of the ice sheet.

Antarctic Lake Vostok buried under two miles of ice found to teem with life

http://goo.gl/ViwYLX

Related / Suggested Videos:

Lake Vostok exclusive: RT inside Antarctic science lab 
http://youtu.be/rJ90iT6iUJI

Unknown life form found in Antarctic lake, miles under the ice… 
http://youtu.be/WdweOwZJYeA

‘Lost World’ reached: 20 million year old Lake Vostok drilled 
http://youtu.be/nPjyHUipBGM

Confirmation of reaching the lake, New York Times: 
Russian Scientists Bore Into Ancient Antarctic Lake
http://dft.ba/-vostok

A sub-glacial lake, as large as lake Ontario, that has been sealed off and out of bounds for millions of years. It took the Russians more than 20 years of relentless drilling to get there.

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Updated:  May 22, 2014
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