| Lake Vostok |
 |
| Radar Satellite image of Lake Vostok (NASA GSFC) |
| Coordinates |
77°30′S 106°00′E / 77.5°S 106°E / -77.5; 106Coordinates: 77°30′S 106°00′E / 77.5°S 106°E / -77.5; 106 |
| Lake type |
subglacial rift lake |
| Basin countries |
- Antarctica |
|
|
| Max. length |
250 km (160 mi) |
| Max. width |
50 km (30 mi) |
| Surface area |
15,690 km2 (6,060 sq mi) |
| Average depth |
344 m (1,129 ft) |
| Max. depth |
510 m (1,700 ft)[1] to 900 m (3,000 ft)[2] |
| Water volume |
5,400 km3 (1,300 cu mi) ± 1,600 km3 (400 cu mi) |
| Residence time |
13,300 yrs |
| Surface elevation |
~ −500 m (−1,600 ft) |
|
|
| Islands |
1 |
| Settlements |
Vostok Station |
Lake Vostok (Russian: озеро Восток, lit. "Lake East") is the largest of more than 140 sub-glacial lakes and was recently drilled into by Russian scientists. The overlying ice provides a continuous paleoclimatic record of 400,000 years, although the lake water itself may have been isolated for 15[3][4] to 25 million years.[5]
Lake Vostok 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. Measuring 250 km (160 mi) long by 50 km (30 mi) wide at its widest point, and covering an area of 15,690 km2 (6,060 sq mi), it is similar in area to Lake Ontario, but with over three times the volume. The average depth is 344 m (1,129 ft). It has an estimated volume of 5,400 km3 (1,300 cu mi).[2] The lake is divided into two deep basins by a ridge. The liquid water over the ridge is about 200 m (700 ft), compared to roughly 400 m (1,300 ft) deep in the northern basin and 800 m (2,600 ft) deep in the southern.
The lake is named after Vostok Station, which in turn is named after the Vostok (Восток), the 900 ton sloop-of-war sailed by one of the discoverers of Antarctica, Russian explorer Admiral Fabian von Bellingshausen.[6][7] The word Bосток means "East" in Russian,[7] and the name of the station and the lake also reflects the fact that they are located in East Antarctica. The existence of a subglacial lake in the Vostok region was first suggested by Russian geographer Andrey Kapitsa based on seismic soundings made during the Soviet Antarctic Expeditions in 1959 and 1964 to measure the thickness of the ice sheet.[8][9] The continued research by Russian and British scientists[9][10] led by 1993 to the final confirmation of the existence of the lake by J.P. Ridley using ERS-1 laser altimetry.[8]
On 5 February 2012, a team of Russian scientists claimed to have completed the longest ever ice core of 3,768 m (12,400 ft) and pierced the ice shield to the surface of the lake.[11] Samples of the freshly frozen water in the ice well are expected to be collected at the end of 2012 when the new Antarctic summer starts.[12][13][14] The Russian team also plans to send a robot into the lake to collect water samples and sediments from the bottom. Unusual forms of life could be found in the lake's liquid layer, an ecosystem sealed off below the ice for millions of years, conditions which could resemble those of the hypothesized ice-covered ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa.[14][15][16]
Russian scientist, and anarchist revolutionary, Peter Kropotkin first proposed the idea of fresh water under Antarctic ice sheets at the end of the 19th century. He theorized that the tremendous pressure exerted by the cumulative mass of thousands of vertical meters of ice could increase the temperature at the lowest portions of the ice sheet to the point where the ice would melt. Kropotkin's theory was further developed by Russian glaciologist I.A. Zotikov, who wrote his Ph.D. thesis on this subject in 1967.[8]
Russian geographer Andrey Kapitsa used seismic soundings in the region of Vostok Station made during the Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1959 and 1964 to measure the thickness of the ice sheet.[8] Kapitsa was the first to suggest the existence of a subglacial lake in the region,[9] and the subsequent research confirmed his hypothesis.[17]
When British scientists in Antarctica performed airborne ice-penetrating radar surveys in the early 1970s, they detected unusual radar readings at the site which suggested the presence of a liquid, freshwater lake below the ice.[18] In 1991, Jeff Ridley, a remote sensing specialist with the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London, directed the ERS-1 satellite to turn its high-frequency array toward the center of the Antarctic ice cap. The data from ERS-1 confirmed the findings from the 1973 British surveys,[19] but these new data were not published in the Journal of Glaciology until 1993. Space-based radar revealed that this subglacial body of fresh water is one of the largest lakes in the world, and one of some 140 subglacial lakes in Antarctica. Russian and British scientists delineated the lake in 1996 by integrating a variety of data, including airborne ice-penetrating radar imaging observations and space-based radar altimetry. It has been confirmed that the lake contains large amounts of liquid water under the more than 3-kilometer (1.9 mi) thick ice cap. The lake has at least 22 cavities of liquid water, averaging 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) each.[20]
In 2005 an island was found in the central part of the lake.[21] Then, in January 2006, the discovery of two nearby smaller lakes under the ice cap was published; they are named 90 Degrees East and Sovetskaya.[22] It is suspected that these Antarctic subglacial lakes may be connected by a network of subglacial rivers. Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling glaciologists Duncan Wingham and Martin Siegert published in Nature in 2006 that many of the subglacial lakes of Antarctica are at least temporarily interconnected. Because of varying water pressure in individual lakes, large subsurface rivers may suddenly form and then force large amounts of water through the solid ice.[23]
Africa separated from Antarctica around 160 million years ago, followed by the Indian subcontinent, in the early Cretaceous (about 125 million years ago). About 65 million years ago, Antarctica (then connected to Australia) still had a tropical to subtropical climate, complete with marsupial fauna and an extensive temperate rainforest.[24][25][26]
The Lake Vostok basin is a small (50 km wide) tectonic feature within the overall setting of a several hundred kilometer wide continental collision zone between the Gamburtsev Mountain Range, a subglacial mountain range and the Dome C region.[27] The lake water is cradled on a bed of sediments 70 meters (230 ft) thick, offering the possibility that they contain a unique record of the climate and life in Antarctica before the ice cap formed.[19][28]
The lake water is believed to have been sealed off under the thick ice sheet about 15 million years ago. Initially, it was thought that the same water had made up the lake since the time of its formation, giving a residence time in the order of one million years.[23] Later research by Robin Bell and Michael Studinger from the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University suggested that the water of the lake is continually freezing and being carried away by the motion of the Antarctic ice sheet, while being replaced by water melting from other parts of the ice sheet in these high pressure conditions. This resulted in an estimate that the entire volume of the lake is frozen and removed every 13,300 years—its effective mean residence time.[29]
The coldest temperature ever observed on Earth, −89 °C (−128 °F), was recorded at Vostok Station on 21 July 1983.[3] The average water temperature is calculated to be around −3 °C (27 °F); it remains liquid below the normal freezing point because of high pressure from the weight of the ice above it.[30] Geothermal heat from the Earth's interior may warm the bottom of the lake.[31][32][33] The ice sheet itself insulates the lake from cold temperatures on the surface.
Lake Vostok is an oligotrophic extreme environment, one that is expected to be supersaturated with nitrogen and oxygen,[34][35] measuring 2.5 liters of nitrogen and oxygen per 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of water,[36] that is 50 times higher than those typically found in ordinary freshwater lakes on Earth. The sheer weight and pressure (350 atmospheres) of the continental ice cap on top of Lake Vostok is believed to contribute to the high gas concentration.[37]
Besides dissolving in the water, oxygen and other gases are trapped in a type of structure called a clathrate. In clathrate structures, gases are enclosed in an icy cage and look like packed snow. These structures form at the high-pressure depths of Lake Vostok and would become unstable if brought to the surface.[23][36]
In April 2005, German, Russian, and Japanese researchers found that the lake has tides.[38] Depending on the position of the Sun and the Moon, the surface of the lake rises about 12 millimeters.[39]
The lake is under complete darkness, under 350 atmospheres (5143 psi) of pressure and expected to be rich in oxygen, so there is speculation that any organisms inhabiting the lake could have evolved in a manner unique to this environment.[19][36] These adaptations to an oxygen-rich environment might include high concentrations of protective oxidative enzymes.
Living Hydrogenophilus thermoluteolus micro-organisms have been found in Lake Vostok's deep ice core drillings; they are an extant surface-dwelling species.[35][40] This suggests the presence of a deep biosphere utilizing a geothermal system of the bedrock encircling the subglacial lake. There is optimism that microbial life in the lake may be possible despite high pressure, constant cold, low nutrient input, potentially high oxygen concentration and an absence of sunlight.[35][41][42]
Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus may also harbor lakes or oceans below a thick crust of ice. Any confirmation of life in Lake Vostok could strengthen the prospect for the presence of life on icy moons.[35][43]
There is a 1 microtesla magnetic anomaly on the east coast of the lake, spanning 105 km (65 mi) by 75 km (47 mi). Researchers hypothesize that the anomaly may be caused by a thinning of Earth's crust in that location.[44]
Current research into Lake Vostok involves drilling through the ice into the lake. Doing so is controversial, due to concern that the lake could become contaminated with the antifreeze that the Russians are currently using to keep the ice from refreezing. The drilling effort reached the surface of the lake on 5 February 2012.[45]
Ice cores drilled at Vostok Station, which is seen in the background
Researchers working at Vostok Station produced one of the world's longest ice cores in 1998. A joint Russian, French, and United States team drilled and analyzed the core, which is 3,623 meters (11,886 ft) long. Ice samples from cores drilled close to the top of the lake have been assessed to be as old as 420,000 years. The assumption is that the lake has been sealed from the surface since the ice sheet formed, 15 million years ago. Drilling of the core was deliberately halted roughly 100 meters (300 ft)[46] above the suspected boundary between the ice sheet and the liquid waters of the lake. This was to prevent contamination of the lake from the 60 ton column of Freon and kerosene Russian scientists filled the borehole with to prevent it from collapsing and freezing over.[19]
From this core, specifically from ice that is thought to have formed from lake water freezing onto the base of the ice sheet, extremophile microbes were found, suggesting that the lake water supports life. Scientists suggested that the lake could possess a unique habitat for ancient bacteria with an isolated microbial gene pool containing characteristics developed perhaps 500,000 years ago.[47]
In November 2010, when the team allegedly came up with new, ecologically safe methods of probing the lake without contamination, the scientists submitted a final environmental evaluation of the project to the Antarctic Treaty System's environmental protection committee and were given the go-ahead to sample the ancient waters.
An artist's cross-section of Lake Vostok's drilling
In January 2011, the head of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, Valery Lukin, announced that his team had only 50 m (200 ft) of ice left to drill in order to reach the water.[3] The researchers then switched to a new thermal drill head with a "clean" silicone oil fluid to drill the rest of the way.[48] Instead of drilling all the way into the water, they said they would stop just above it when a sensor on the thermal drill detected free water. At that point, the drill was to be stopped and extracted from the bore hole. Removal of the drill would lower the pressure beneath it, drawing water into the hole to be left to freeze, creating a plug of ice in the bottom of the hole.[49] Drilling stopped on 5 February 2011 at a depth of 3,720 meters (12,200 ft) so that the research team could make it off the ice before the beginning of the Antarctic winter season. The drilling team left by aircraft on 6 February 2011.[50]
By plan, the following summer, the team was to drill down again to take a sample of that ice and analyze it.[3][51] The Russians resumed drilling into the lake in January 2012. On 6 February 2012, the Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti announced that the team had reached the upper surface of the water,[11] although Valery Lukin, director of the Russian Antarctic programme, told Nature this may be premature as data from a number of sensors monitoring the drilling were still being analysed.[52]
In the Antarctic summer of 2012–13, the Russian team also plans to send an underwater robot into the lake to collect water samples and sediments from the bottom. An environmental assessment of the plan will be submitted at the Antarctic Treaty's consultative meeting in May 2012.[51] Meanwhile, both the American and British teams intend to penetrate the lakes sometime in the future and retrieve sediment cores from the bottom.[53]
The drilling project has been opposed by some environmental groups and scientists who have argued that hot-water drilling would do less environmental damage.[54] The Russians explained that hot-water drilling required more power than they could generate at their remote camp.[54] Scientists of the United States National Research Council have taken the position that it should be assumed that microbial life exists in Lake Vostok and that after such a long isolation, any life forms in the lake require strict protection from contamination.[55] Sediments on its floor should give clues to its long-term climate, and isotopes in its water are expected to help geologists determine how and when subglacial lakes such as Lake Vostok form. Meticulously documented decontamination procedures will be required to establish the credibility of the scientific data obtained.
The original drilling technique employed by the Russians involved the use of Freon and kerosene to lubricate the borehole and prevent it from collapsing and freezing over; 60 tons of these chemicals have been used thus far on the ice above Lake Vostok.[19] Other countries, particularly the United States and Britain, have failed to persuade the Russians not to pierce to the lake until cleaner technologies such as hot-water drilling are available.[56] Though the Russians claim to have improved their operations, they continue to use the same borehole, which has already been filled with kerosene.[1] According to the head of Russian Antarctic Expeditions, Valery Lukin, new equipment was developed by researchers at the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute that would ensure the lake remains uncontaminated upon intrusion.[3][57] Lukin has repeatedly reassured other signatory nations to the Antarctic Treaty System that the drilling will not affect the lake, arguing that on breakthrough, water will rush up the borehole, freeze, and seal the chemical fluids out.
Some environmentalist groups remain unconvinced by these arguments. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition has argued that this manner of drilling is a profoundly misguided step which endangers Lake Vostok itself and also other subglacial lakes in Antarctica (which some scientists are convinced are inter-linked with Lake Vostok).[8] The coalition has asserted that "it would be far preferable to join with other countries to penetrate a smaller and more isolated lake before re-examining whether penetration of Lake Vostok is environmentally defensible. If we are wise, the Lake will be allowed to reveal its secrets in due course."[8]
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- ^ "Breaking Through the Ice at Lake Vostok". Astrobiology Magazine. 16 February 2012. http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/4571/breaking-through-the-ice-at-lake-vostok. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
- ^ a b Niiler, E (9 February 2011). "Antarctic Drilling Plan Raises Concerns". Discovery News. http://news.discovery.com/earth/lake-vostok-antarctica-environment-110209.html. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
- ^ "Exploration of Antarctic Subglacial". National Academy of Sciences. National Research Council. 2007. http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/materials-based-on-reports/reports-in-brief/subglacial_lakes_final.pdf. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
- ^ Darby, A (8 February 2011). "Antarctic Treaty no match for national pride". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/antarctic-treaty-no-match-for-national-pride-20110209-1ameh.html. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
- ^ Russians Close to Reaching Lake Vostok The St. Petersburg Times Retrieved on 9 March 2010
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