NSF PR 99-47 - August 3, 1999
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Ice-Covered Antarctic Lake May Harbor Unknown Life
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Photo Credit: courtesy of Jean Robert
Petit of Laboratoire de Glaciologie et
Geophysique de l'Environnement, CNRS Grenoble,
France.
Please contact him for high-resolution
versions, at petit@glaciog.ujf-grenoble.fr
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Microbes entirely unknown to science may exist in liquid
water in Lake Vostok, thousands of meters beneath
the Antarctic ice sheet. That possibility is one of
several intriguing mysteries that justify undertaking
the logistical challenges of exploring the lake, according
to a new report from a workshop funded by the National
Science Foundation (NSF).
The report, "Lake Vostok: A Curiosity or a Focus for
Interdisciplinary Study," concludes that the lake
"may represent a unique region for detailed scientific
investigation" for several reasons. Among them is
the possibility that conditions under the ice may
approximate those on Europa, a frozen moon of Jupiter,
and so may indicate whether life may be able to exist
in harsh conditions elsewhere in the solar system.
The report represents the conclusions reached by scientists
from a variety of fields who met in Washington D.C.
last November. The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
at Columbia University and the University of Hawaii
jointly organized the meeting.
Lake Vostok is roughly the size of Lake Ontario in
North America. Vostok Station -- a Russian scientific
outpost, which once recorded the lowest temperature
on earth (-126.9 degrees Fahrenheit) -- is located
in the vicinity of the lake. As part of a joint U.S.,
French and Russian research project, Russian teams
have drilled down into the ice covering the lake,
producing the world's deepest ice core. But drilling
was deliberately stopped roughly 120 meters above
where the ice and liquid water meet to prevent possible
contamination.
The report concludes that Lake Vostok merits further
scientific investigation, including devising a way
to drill through the ice sheet to reach the water
-- and lake-bottom sediments -- without contaminating
them.
The report notes that that there are several reasons
other than the possibility of discovering unknown
forms of life for exploring the lake. Water below
the ice, which has been cut off from the outside world
for hundreds of thousands of years, may have a unique
chemical composition. There may also be an active
tectonic rift below the lake, which may be warming
its waters. Or sediments at the lake bottom may contain
a record of ancient climate conditions.
Robin E. Bell, a geophysicist and a co-editor of the
report, says it "illustrates the emerging importance
of the lake for understanding the processes which
may have triggered the evolutionary explosion on earth
and perhaps on other planets as well as deciphering
the geologic history of Antarctica."
NSF's Office of Polar Programs, through the U.S. Antarctic
Program (USAP), coordinates all U.S. scientific research
on the continent. NSF will send a delegation of U.S.
scientists to represent the consensus of opinion contained
in the report at a meeting of the international Scientific
Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), scheduled
for September in Cambridge, England.
At that meeting, scientists will discuss the scientific
objectives of sub-glacial lake exploration and will
examine the logistical and engineering requirements
for exploring the lake.
The SCAR meeting also will assess the risk of contamination
posed by various exploration techniques and will consider
a schedule for accomplishing the scientific goal of
exploring the lake.
Editors: For copies of the report, in PDF and
Postscript formats, see: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/vostok/
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