Massive Lake Beneath Antarctica

[Che]

source: YouTube - The Lost Secret World of Lake Vostok. 1/5

So basically the video explains how the Russians (if I recall correctly) set up a base in the middle of Antarctica years ago. To supply the base they had to send in a convoy of supplies from the coast of Antarctica. While moving to the base someone pointed out how unbelievably flat the area was. They suspect there might be a lake under the ice.

They used explosions to try to send sound waves to find the lake. Nothing at first, the Russians leave. Later, a British team comes back with more technology a few years later. They fly a plane with radar over the base and pretty much find out theres a lake underneath 4 kilometers of ice.

The body of water has been locked away from the rest of the world for potentially millions of years. They think that at the very bottom, the ice acts as a insulator, preventing the Earth's heat from escaping. Over time, the bottom of the ice would melt and create water.

This lake could potentially have "alien" life. Life that has been cut off from the rest of the evolving world, thus being able to evolve on its own, untouched. The lake is half the size of Wales.

We're currently trying to figure out a way to open it up without contaminating it.

What are your thoughts on the issue? Will there be life like we have not seen before? Will it just be microbes and small ocean creatures, or do you think things may have evolved into bigger creatures like the ones found in our ocean today?

[Martin]

I'm thinking if there is any great discoveries to be made, it'll not be from this lake but researching the former life within. Microbes and amoebas will be pretty much all you'd find, if they're frozen underground then where's a fresh food supply? Interesting what new infromation they'd uncover though. I'd just be surprised if you see a Mammoth or something..

[Alpha]

Actually most of the Antarctic ice sheet has a liquid-ice 'slurry' beneath it. Believe it or not (well, believe it), this slurry allows the glacial ice to move uphill. That's right. Ice moves uphill in Antarctica. Normally glaciers just cut through hills and spurs, and that's how you get big glacial valleys in northern Europe, America, and other places. But with this slurry of partially-frozen ice/water, it is easier for the ice to roll over mountain ranges. Naturally, of course, it's easier for the ice to move over entire mountain chains in Antarctica, rather than pushing through them. Lake Vostok is an accumulation of this slurry material, and is by far the biggest, though there are many others.

As to the 'alien life' thing... it would be interesting, but I have no idea. Biology is shit.