Two and a one-half miles under the Earth lies Lake Vostok , which has n’t seen the light of twenty-four hour period in 20 million years . It ’s ask almost 20 twelvemonth of oil production , butRussian scientists are about to break in throughand search the lake at the bottom of the Earth .
Vostok is guess to contain more fresh water than any other lake in the humankind , and is the third - largest by mass overall . To give you a horse sense of just how mysterious it is , it ’s keep liquid by heat from the core of the planet . And the Russian boring is being staged at Antarctica ’s Vostok Station , which itself is built at the Southern Cold Pole — basically , the coldest point on Earth . scientist are giddy over the possibleness of observing life that ’s been completely undisturbed for meg of years , since back when Antarctica was attached to Australia .
The easy joke is to wonder aloud what horrors are going to escape — Old Atlantis buried beneath Antarctica is already an ongoing Marvel Comics plot — but even scarier for the scientists on the scene is the chance that they might find nothing at all . That would be grievous for the masses who ’ve drop decennary doing research in an incredibly frigid and inhospitable clime .
And then there ’s the worst - typesetter’s case scenario : That the lake is irrevocably cloud before any research can be conducted at all . If a exercise breaks too far into the water system , it could foul samples . There could be a gaseous explosion when the recitation bit breaks through , the result of which would be like shaking up a can of soda and pop it unfastened , make an tremendous geyser and destroying much of the subterranean ecosystem . As one scientist thatthe Washington Post interviewedsays , “ If it does n’t go well , it casts a pall over the whole exploit to explore this pie-eyed underside of Antarctica . ”
But if all does run short well ? The implication are abysmal not just for the fleshing out of Earth ’s diachronic record , but the prospects of life on aloof celestial body . Moons of Jupiter and Saturn , and presumptively many exoplanets , have like glacial surfaces that might hide lakes like Vostok . And could host alike life form .
So there ’s a elephantine and ancient body of water that ’s warmed by the planet ’s molten kernel buried beneath the cold point on Earth , and whatever organism found there might lead to breakthroughs in the study of interstellar animation . The Russians have been digging there for tenner and are about to give way through . The results could be traumatic , or life - altering or both .
Who needs Marvel ? [ Washington Post , BBC ]
range credit : Wikipedia Commons
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