Antarctic lake drilling mission edges closer

[Still Waters]

An ambitious plan to explore a vast lake trapped beneath the Antarctic ice is a step closer to becoming reality.

An advance party has braved freezing temperatures to set up vital equipment and supplies at Lake Ellsworth.

The project by UK engineers to drill through the two-mile-thick ice-sheet is scheduled for the end of the year.

The aims are to search for signs of life in the waters and to extract sediments from the lake floor to better understand the past climate.

It is is one of the most challenging British scientific projects for years.

Read more...

[xYlvax]

Great! I can't wait to see if they'll find anything.

[WoIverine]

Considering the temperatures, that's one heck of an ambitious expirement.

[HawkLord]

They best be careful not to pull up any Shoggoths.

[27vet]

Great! I can't wait to see if they'll find anything.

I'm pretty sure they will find plenty. The exciting thing is that these species would have developed separately for millions of years. Finding something down there will raise the probablity of finding life on Europa and similar icy worlds with liquid water under the ice. The downside is that we could inadvertently introduce other species into the lake.

Edited January 17, 2012 by 27vet

[reggie2011]

i dunno what the hell there thinkin we cant drill down there if one microbe gets in that water all is lost for us finding thats why theve never tryed before they would have to use lasers or somthing its simply not possible yet,everything is trapped there if anything from up here gets in we will never know if microbial life can survive on ice planets ,extremophiles, because it will be contaminated, the process is to complex and they should ban anyone from even attepting it for the next 50 or so years untill we have the technology to attept such a feat,bottem line we have one shot and one shot only

[MiskatonicGrad]

Amen HawkLord

[Raptor Witness]

Perhaps at the bottom of that lake is a monster, who has been trapped for eons.

[Daughter of the Nine Moons]

They best be careful not to pull up any Shoggoths.

I had to look it up...

“It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.”

— H. P. Lovecraft, At The Mountains of Madness

[Varelse]

This lake could have made the basis for many cool sci fi/cryptid movies. The documentary should be cool enough if they show alot of freaky new stuff without contaminating the rest of humanity with some ancient killer virus in the process.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Framling

[Habitat]

What happened to The Russians drilling into another lake down there ? Maybe they stalled for fear they would contaminate it. Seems unlikely that liquid water should exist under all that ice, presumably they found out about it from seismic tests ?

[aquatus1]

I think I saw a documentary on something like this once. Apparently it infected one of the dogs, who then passed it on to the Norwegian research team. Then the American team that went there caught it too, even though the last Norwegian tried to warn them. I don't remember the details too well, but I think it ended badly.

[Junior Chubb]

I think I saw a documentary on something like this once. Apparently it infected one of the dogs, who then passed it on to the Norwegian research team. Then the American team that went there caught it too, even though the last Norwegian tried to warn them. I don't remember the details too well, but I think it ended badly.

Hi aquatus1,

I think you are talking about 'The Thing' a 1982 film starring Kurt Russel. Which is in turn based on 'The Thing From Another World'' (1951) which is in turn inspired by something else if I remember rightly.

If not I want to see that documentary!!

Here are some links to the films but Wiki is currently down for 24hrs as a protest (here come the conspiracies) so there are some imdb.com links until Wiki is back

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(1982_film)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_from_Another_World

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044121/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044121/

[WoIverine]

Wasn't there a predator / alien temple somewhere beneath the ice in Antartica?

[Raptor Witness]

[All Eyes on Antarctic Drillers at Scott Expedition Centennial] by Sara Reardon on 18 January 2012, 10:58 AM - Science.org

... These modern-day explorers hope to discover whether Vostok, which at 5000 km 3 is the third largest lake on the planet, is teeming with hidden, cold-loving life that could have evolved separately from the rest of the world for hundreds of thousands of years.

Microbiologist John Priscu of Montana State University in Bozeman, who was one of the original planners of the Vostok mission, has been getting regular updates from the Russian team. As of 13 January, they had reached a depth of 3737.5 meters, about 15 meters away from liquid water. With three teams drilling around the clock and making progress at an average of 2 meters per day, Priscu says they're on track to break through within the week. "This is an epic event. I really wish them luck," he says. "I wish I was out there with them."

After drilling 3720 meters last February, time ran out for the team and the project was stymied just 29.5 meters from its destination as winter set in. Over the summer, they modified their drill bits and now the team is back at work with plenty of time to spare. They had left the large hole filled with antifreeze, so it was ready and waiting for them. It will remain open for years to come, Priscu says, potentially allowing other teams to sample the waters in the future.

It's a nerve-wracking moment for the drillers, however. The lake water is under immense pressure, making it imperative that the team's calculations are correct. In the worst case scenario, Priscu says, "water could come up the hole and degas explosively, blowing out the whole borehole."

Now that the team is at the interface of the water and ice, the ice is very warm and forms large crystals that are challenging to drill through and caused the team's drill to get stuck last year. But the modifications they've made seem to be working so far, Priscu says. The team will switch drill bits from the large one that takes ice cores as it goes to a smaller one only a few centimetres in diameter, which will melt its way down using a sterile silicone fluid. The team will then leave the lake water to rise about 50 meters into the hole and freeze; when they return next winter, they will be able to retrieve this core and examine it for microbial life.

The Russians aren't the only ones planning to breach an Antarctic lake. A British team directed by University of Edinburgh glaciologist Martin Siegert of the British Antarctic Survey returned from Antarctica's Lake Ellsworth last week, where it dropped off a drill, 3400 meters of hose, a giant hot water boiler, and four 1.5 megawatt generators. This fall, the researchers will return and drill into the lake, collect water samples, and analyze them, all within 3 days. Theirs is a different approach from the Russians': rather than using a giant drill bit to make a permanent hole, they will be melting their way through with hot water, leaving a hole that's open for only about 48 hours in which they can take water samples before it freezes shut. But unlike the Russian team, they hope to get answers on the presence of microbial life right away, Siegert says, as they'll be analyzing the contents of each bottle of lakewater as they get it. "We've been planning Ellsworth for 10 years, for a day of drilling and a day of labs," he says ...cont. at link above.

----------------------------------------------------------

Geeze, I don't know who started this thread, but the Russians are set to break through the lake in the middle of the Antarctic, tomorrow!

They're far more worried that the lake is under pressure, and what this might do to their bore hole and equipment, if their calculations are wrong. If true, then the chances of contaminating the lake are next to nil, but our environment is another story. Who knows, perhaps there's enough methane down there to ignite the entire Continent, melting it. That would be interesting.

Doom was predicted for this Continent. What this graphic means exactly, I'm unsure, but it's not a rosy outlook.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Raptor Witness

[dazdillinjah]

I wonder why they bother wearing sterile gloves when they are breathing all over the equipment ???? (shouldnt they have the face/breathing masks if they call it a clean room ?)

[aquatus1]

The gloves are to keep body oils off the equipment. The pieces themselves are sterilized before being taken to the clean room and assembled (The clean room is that little bassinet looking thing where everyone sticks their arms through the built in gloves on the side).

[dazdillinjah]

The gloves are to keep body oils off the equipment. The pieces themselves are sterilized before being taken to the clean room and assembled (The clean room is that little bassinet looking thing where everyone sticks their arms through the built in gloves on the side).

I understand (re the clean room) ..I just am quite startled to find out that body oils cannot be removed in the clean room but strains of streptococci & the like can be ? I truly thought airborne strep & such were more resilient than body oils .. well Im glad to learn this I was very worried they may contaminate the underground(ice) lake ...Cheers Aquatus

[Karlis]

This week, a Russian team drilling into Lake Vostok in the center of the Antarctic continent is likely to break through the ice to water. It will be the first time that a subglacial lake has been breached. These modern-day explorers hope to discover whether Vostok, which at 5000 km 3 is the third largest lake on the planet, is teeming with hidden, cold-loving life that could have evolved separately from the rest of the world for hundreds of thousands of years. ...

Source

[Habitat]

This week, a Russian team drilling into Lake Vostok in the center of the Antarctic continent is likely to break through the ice to water. It will be the first time that a subglacial lake has been breached. These modern-day explorers hope to discover whether Vostok, which at 5000 km 3 is the third largest lake on the planet, is teeming with hidden, cold-loving life that could have evolved separately from the rest of the world for hundreds of thousands of years. ...

Source

This is an exciting moment, the lake has supposedly been sealed off from the world for millions of years. If anything is alive in there, it will be a remarkable find.

Edited January 20, 2012 by Karlis
Deleted double posting

[tapirmusic]

Tekeli-li!

Tekeli-li!

[aquatus1]

Seriously...there better be a Youtube feed or something the moment they pop through the ice...

[Habitat]

I don't know what happens to all the kerosene and freon they've put in the drill hole to stop it re-freezing. Won't be helping the 'wildlife' by dropping that into the lake.

[Habitat]

There are doubts about what pressure exists in the water under all that ice, it might turn into the biggest fountain feature in history.