Friday, February 13, 2015

Lake Vostok, below the Antarctic ice cap

Image from tgdaily

In 2012, Antarctica's largest subglacial lake was exposed to air for the first time in 20 million years when Russian scientists drilled through the ice cap, a job that took them decades.

1983 saw a temperature of -128.6, making Vostok Station the coldest place on earth.

Is there life in this lake? Scientists speculate that there could be microbiological forms as yet unclassified. According to Aharon Etingoff, any organism that lived there would have to be an "extremeophile," capable of withstanding great pressure and longstanding light deprivation, along with incredibly cold temperatures.  

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