In Antarctica, at the end of the last century, a large subglacial lake was discovered near the Vostok station. Its area is about 20,000 square meters. km., the volume of water - 5400 thousand cubic meters. km Such a geographical discovery, scientists of the world rank among the largest in the XX century.
Unexpected for everyone was an ice sheet with a thickness of 4000 meters, which still hid this huge relict lake. In total, more than 140 such reservoirs have been discovered in Antarctica today. The east remains the largest among them.
What is a relict lake?
Such is a body of water that continues to exist on the site of a retreating sea, communicating with it through channels or remains isolated.
A similar phenomenon occurs as a result of tectonic processes or in the formation of any accumulative forms (scattering, streamers). There are many such people in the world. This article presents the story of one unique lake, relatively recently discovered in Antarctica.
About opening
How was a relict lake discovered in Antarctica? In the middle of the 20th century, Andrei Kapitsa (Soviet explorer polar explorer) studied the ice sheet at the Vostok station. In the process of studying the signals reflected from the ice, he noticed that something else was hiding under the thick layer of the glacier. Only after 40 years, after conducting multiple studies, he was able to find out the following: under the huge ice mass in Antarctica there is an unknown lake.
The first drilling of a well called 5G-1 was started in 1989 during a joint expedition by scientists from France, the USA and the USSR. In the process of drilling at a depth of 3539 meters, an ice surface was reached, which in its structure represented the frozen water of an ice-covered reservoir. By 1999, a depth of 3,623 meters was reached, where ice samples were approximately 430 thousand years old.
Specifications
Lake Vostok is located in the very center of Antarctica. Its maximum depth is about 1200 meters. It occupies the 3rd place in the world among the deepest lakes. A powerful ice dome can only be compared with the highest mountains. If Elbrus was at the bottom of the relict lake Vostok, then it would be completely blocked by an ice layer.
Today, the ice cap, striking in its scale, is a laboratory. Particles of the atmosphere that were in these places many centuries ago are preserved in the thickness of the ice. Thanks to the available data, it will be possible to judge the level of greenhouse gas content in the past, as well as obtain information on the quantitative change in climate properties and the factors that caused this.
What did scientists discover?
The lake, which has been isolated from the Earth’s biosphere and atmosphere for 4–25 million years, has almost all the factors important for living organisms to live in it: fresh water, oxygen content 50 times higher than ordinary water, and high temperature, which is most likely due to the presence of geothermal underground sources. But there are some difficulties for microorganisms, mainly related to the huge water pressure created by the giant ice shell, as well as the lack of light and any organic substances.
In 2013, Russian scientists in samples of frozen water extracted from the lake, were able to detect previously unknown microbial life by DNA analysis. This bacterium is not identified or classified today. Such a finding can significantly change some ideas in the world of science. It turns out that the relict Lake Vostok today is the only platform on planet Earth for practicing methods of searching for extraterrestrial life forms, since the conditions in the lake resemble data on some planets in which life can most likely exist.
Russian polar explorers were able to reach the depths of Lake Vostok, having drilled about 4000 meters in depth. The ice in the lake has a completely unique structure. These are single giant crystals that were discovered for the first time.
Further work
Melt water, extracted from the relict lake in Antarctica, is now in the museum located in the Mining Institute. A sample of less than one liter was obtained thanks to the work of many people for 50 years.
The purpose of the work carried out by scientists in this direction is to learn how to get clean, non-frozen water. Today, the Institute for Nuclear Physics in St. Petersburg is designing a facility that allows special instruments to be lowered into Lake Vostok.
Finally
There are many similar lakes in the world. Among them, Lake Inari can be especially distinguished , which was formed during the ice age and is one of its many natural reservoirs in Finland. It refers to relict lakes. Reviews of tourists who visited this mysterious place are enthusiastic.
Russian lakes also belong to such types: Ladoga, Onega. Also, the Caspian, Aral Sea, etc. belong to such formations.