We dive deep into the icy waters of Lake Vostok to see what mysteries lie beneath the surface.
Life can sometimes be found in the most unexpected of places. Scientists have been searching for life beyond Earth for quite some time, and one of the signs they look for as possibly indicative of life is water. Despite being a continent, Antarctica is not considered to be permanently habitable for people because of the weather conditions present in the area. However, this very reason also makes it a great location for discoveries and research.
The size of the lake can be compared to that of Lake Ontario, with measurements reaching an area of around 5,400 m^2 . The lake and the Russian research station located on the surface near the lake were both named after the ship Vostok, which means “east” in Russian. This ship sailed on the first Russian Antarctic expedition in 1819-1821, which discovered Antarctica.
The existence of liquid water beneath layers of mile-thick ice sheets can be thought of as uncommon since scientists are still divided on how subglacial lakes are formed. It is without a doubt that Antarctica has some of the most extreme weather conditions in the world. Surface air temperatures can reach below -76°F . In fact, the coldest temperature recorded to date was measured at the Vostok Station on July 21, 1983, reaching -128.6°F . Despite year-round temperatures well below the freezing point, the existence of liquid water in glacial lakes is thought to occur thanks to several reasons.
The next challenge after confirming the existence of Lake Vostok was how to actually access its waters. In the 1990s, an international research team found microbes in frozen lake water collected from accretion ice .
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