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Lake Vostok: Russian scientists confirm triumph as drilling is successful in Antarctica

• Drilling successful as scientists break through into lake buried miles under Antarctic ice
• Scientists confirm breakthrough into buried lake
• Have raised sample of 40 litres of water
• Frozen sample will be removed in December in next Antarctic summer
  
• ‘Like exploring another planet except this one is ours’, scientist
  
• Lake has had no contact with man-made pollutants or Earthly life forms for millions of years

By Rob Cooper and Thomas Durante

Last updated at 7:51 PM on 8th February 2012

The Russian drilling machine 5-G in Antarctica. The research institute said Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, it has reached Lake Vostok, Antarctica’s largest icebound freshwater lake, which has been sealed off for millions of years, after more than two decades of drilling

After more than two decades of drilling in Antarctica, Russian scientists have confirmed that they reached the surface of a gigantic freshwater lake hidden under miles of ice for some 20 million years.

The scientists returned 40 litres of water to the surface – water isolated from earthly life forms since before Man existed.

The scientists will later remove the frozen sample for analysis in December when the next Antarctic summer comes. They have now left the site.

The scientists rebuffed claims that their drilling could have contaminated the lake, a body of water which has been in isolation for 20 million years.

The Russian researchers have insisted the bore would only slightly touch the lake’s surface and that a surge in pressure will send the water rushing up the shaft where it will freeze, immediately sealing out the toxic chemicals.

Lukin said about 50 cubic feet of kerosene and freon poured up to the surface from the boreshaft, proof that the lake water streamed up from beneath, froze, and blocked the hole.

‘It’s like exploring another planet, except this one is ours,’ said Columbia University glaciologist Robin Bell

Valery Lukin, the head of Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), which is in charge of the mission, said in Wednesday’s statement that his team reached the lake’s surface on Sunday.

Lukin has previously compared the Lake Vostok effort to the moon race that the Soviet Union lost to the United States, telling the Russian media he was proud that Russia will be the first this time. Although far from being the world’s deepest lake, the severe weather of Antarctica and the location’s remoteness made the project challenging.

‘There is no other place on Earth that has been in isolation for more than 20 million years,’ said Lev Savatyugin, a researcher with the AARI. ‘It’s a meeting with the unknown.’

Savatyugin said scientists hope to find primeval bacteria that could expand the human knowledge of the origins of life.

‘We need to see what we have here before we send missions to ice-crusted moons, like Jupiter’s moon Europa,’ he said.

Lake Vostok is 160 miles  long and 30 miles across at its widest point, similar in area to Lake Ontario. It lies about 2.4 miles beneath the surface and is the largest in a web of nearly 400 known subglacial lakes in Antarctica. The lake is warmed underneath by geothermal energy.

Sample: An ice core is seen at the Vostok camp in Antarctica on April 5, 2010

The drilling in the area began in 1989 and dragged on slowly due to funding shortages, equipment breakdowns, environmental concerns and severe cold.

While temperatures on the Vostok Station on the surface above have registered the coldest ever recorded on Earth, reaching minus 89 degrees Celsius (minus 128 degrees Fahrenheit), the water in the lake is warmed by the giant pressure of the ice crust and geothermal energy underneath.

The Russian team reached the lake just before they had to leave at the end of the Antarctic summer season.

Scientists believe that microbial life may exist in the dark depths of the lake despite its high pressure and constant cold – conditions similar to those expected to be found under the ice crust on Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s move Enceladus.

Hole lotta fun: Researchers work with drilling apparatus at the Vostok camp

Chilled drinks: Researchers enjoy a traditional Vostok welcome of vodka and bread

‘In the simplest sense, it can transform the way we think about life,’ NASA’s chief scientist Waleed Abdalati told the AP by email.

Scientists in other nations hope to follow up this discovery with similar projects. American and British teams are drilling to reach their own subglacial Antarctic lakes, but Bell said those lakes are smaller and younger than Vostok, which is the big scientific prize.

Some scientists hope that studies of Lake Vostok and other subglacial lakes will advance knowledge of Earth’s own climate and help predict its changes.

Cold call: A supply convoy arrives at the Vostok research camp in December 2009

Base of operations: The Russians are operating out of the Vostok Station, pictured here, which opened in December 1957

Cross country vehicles deliver food and fuel to the Vostok Antarctic research station, one of the coldest and most inhospitable places on Earth. It has recorded temperatures of -89 centigrade

“It is an important milestone that has been completed and a major achievement for the Russians because they’ve been working on this for years,” Professor Martin Siegert, a leading scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, which is trying to reach another Antarctic subglacial lake, Lake Ellsworth.

“The Russian team share our mission to understand subglacial lake environments and we look forward to developing collaborations with their scientists and also those from the U.S. and other nations, as we all embark on a quest to comprehend these pristine, extreme environments,” he said in an email.

In the future, Russian researchers plan to explore the lake using an underwater robot equipped with video cameras that would collect water samples and sediments from the bottom of the lake, a project still awaiting the approval of the Antarctic Treaty organization.

The prospect of lakes hidden under Antarctic ice was first put forward by Russian scientist and anarchist revolutionary, Prince Pyotr Kropotkin at the end of the 19th century. Russian geographer Andrei Kapitsa pointed at the likely location of the lake and named it following Soviet Antarctic missions in the 1950s and 1960s, but it wasn’t until 1994 that its existence was proven by Russian and British scientists.

Earlier this week state-run news agency in Russia claimed that an extraordinary cache of Hitler’s archives may be buried in a secret Nazi ice bunker near the spot where yesterday’s breakthrough was made.

‘It is thought that towards the end of the Second World War, the Nazis moved to the South Pole and started constructing a base at Lake Vostok,’ claimed RIA Novosti, the Russian state news agency.

It cited Admiral Karl Dontiz in 1943 saying ‘Germany’s submarine fleet is proud that it created an unassailable fortress for the Fuehrer on the other end of the world’, in Antarctica.

According to German naval archives, months after the Nazis surrendered to the Allies in April 1945, a U-530 submarine arrived at the South Pole from the Port of Kiel.

The crew are rumoured to have constructed a still undiscovered ice cave ‘and supposedly stored several boxes of relics from the Third Reich, including Hitler’s secret files’.

A later claim was that a U-977 submarine delivered remains of Hitler and Eva Braun to Antarctica in the hope they could be cloned from their DNA. The submariners then went to Argentina to surrender, it was claimed.

Microbiologists say that the lake could offer a glimpse of unique life forms. The project has been closely watched by both NASA and the Russian Space Agency.

One hope is that it will give a glimpse of conditions on Jupiter’s moon Europa where water is also believed to exist under a thick ice cover.

‘The discovery of microorganisms in Lake Vostok may mean that, perhaps, the first meeting with extraterrestrial life could happen on Europa,’ said Dr Vladimir Kotlyakov, Director of the Geography Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Specialists at the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute will now test a sample of water that has been sucked from the lake, and frozen.

Karl Doenitz German admiral, and commander of the submarine fleet 1939-1943: A Russian news agency has claimed that he built ‘an unassailable fortress for the Fuhrer’ near Lake Vostok

Experts say the lake, which could have a body of water the same size as Lake Ontario, could offer a glimpse of unseen lifeforms

Last year, the expedition stopped 10 to 50 metres short of the lake after the weather closed in and the scientists were forced to abandon the expedition.

Academics say they have found ‘the only giant super-clean water system on the planet’. They forecast the extraordinary 5,400 cubic kilometres of pristine water will be ‘twice cleaner than double-distilled water’, and any life will have developed in total isolation.

‘We’re not talking a new Loch Ness Monster – though we actually cannot really predict what to expect,’ an expedition source told Ria Novosti. ‘The lake water is a moving body, and despite being almost 4 km under the ice, there is an oxygen supply, and microorganisms have already been found in the ice drilled from close to the roof of Lake Vostok.’

Professor John Priscu told usnews.com in an email that the crews had been working ‘round the clock’ to finish the project before the Antarctic summer ended, which meant no planes could fly from the remote Vostok Station, where temperatures are currently around minus 66C.

‘If they were successful, their efforts will transform the way we do science in Antarctica and provide us with an entirely new view of what exists under the vast Antarctic ice sheet,’ he said.

Geothermal heat under the ice keeps the lake liquid, and its conditions are often described as ‘alien’ because they are thought to be akin to the subterranean lakes on Jupiter’s moon Europa. 

‘I think we’ll find unique organisms,’ Professor Priscu, a microbiologist at the University of Montana, and a veteran Antarctic researcher who is on the trip told Scientific American.

On January 13, Mr Priscu said the team was progressing well, drilling 5.7ft a day. He said they had switched from an ice drill to a thermal drill to melt through the last 16 to 32ft of ice.

‘This was the plan, but when you’re in the field, things can change,’ Priscu, who had been communicating with the group from his office in St. Petersburg, said.

‘This has never been done before,’ Priscu told OurAmazingPlanet. ‘It’s a one-of-a-kind drill, a one-of-a-kind borehole, and a one-of-a-kind lake, so I’m sure they’re making decisions on the fly all the time.’

The team had a deadline of Tuesday, before already ice-cold temperatures in the desolate spot drop another 40 degrees centigrade.

Valery Lukin, chief of the Russian Antactic Expedition, said last month: ‘We do not know what is waiting for us down there.’

Cold hard facts: Drilling milestones reached and marked on the wall are seen at the Vostok camp in Antarctica in June 2010

Harsh conditions: The Russian team have also worked with French and American scientists on the project at Vostok Station

Antarctica, McMurdo Station, boxes of ice cores from Lake Vostok beneath the polar plateau

Treacherous island: The red circle shows the location of Vostok Station, the remote polar station where the scientists drilled to the buried lake

Drill: Lake Vostok, seen in this satellite image, is one of the most inhospitable environments on earth. During drilling at the site temperatures have hit -66C

On July 21, 1983, temperatures at Vostok Station hit the lowest level ever recorded on Earth – minus 89.2C.

When the breakthrough moment comes they must take care not to contaminate the hidden underground world with bacteria and fluids from the drilling.

To make sure the water stays completely pure, the machinery will not even touch the lake.

Instead suction will be used to suck samples of the unique water into the borehole, where it will freeze before being raised to the surface for analysis.

Vostok Station, 1967: A supply plane delivers foodstuffs and equipment to Vostok polar station

The team also faces the risk of an explosion with oxygen and nitrogen trapped below.

They are trying to make sure only a small amount of air can escape to avert the risk.

The scientists have been drilling 24 hours a day in three shifts as they race to break through before winter descends.

Environmental groups have criticised the work on the site – and the chemicals used such as kerosene to keep the hole open.

Others have said the site should not be explored but instead left in pristine condition.

‘We have raised 40 litres of water’: Russian scientists confirm triumph at Antarctic lake isolated under miles of ice for millions of years

• Drilling successful as scientists break through into lake buried miles under Antarctic ice
• Scientists confirm breakthrough into buried lake
• Have raised sample of 40 litres of water
• Frozen sample will be removed in December in next Antarctic summer
  
• ‘Like exploring another planet except this one is ours’, scientist
  
• Lake has had no contact with man-made pollutants or Earthly life forms for millions of years

By Rob Cooper and Thomas Durante

Last updated at 6:39 PM on 8th February 2012

The Russian drilling machine 5-G in Antarctica. The research institute said Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, it has reached Lake Vostok, Antarctica’s largest icebound freshwater lake, which has been sealed off for millions of years, after more than two decades of drilling

After more than two decades of drilling in Antarctica, Russian scientists have confirmed that they reached the surface of a gigantic freshwater lake hidden under miles of ice for some 20 million years.

The scientists returned 40 litres of water to the surface – water isolated from earthly life forms since before Man existed.

The scientists will later remove the frozen sample for analysis in December when the next Antarctic summer comes. They have now left the site.

The scientists rebuffed claims that their drilling could have contaminated the lake, a body of water which has been in isolation for 20 million years.

The Russian researchers have insisted the bore would only slightly touch the lake’s surface and that a surge in pressure will send the water rushing up the shaft where it will freeze, immediately sealing out the toxic chemicals.

Lukin said about 50 cubic feet of kerosene and freon poured up to the surface from the boreshaft, proof that the lake water streamed up from beneath, froze, and blocked the hole.

‘It’s like exploring another planet, except this one is ours,’ said Columbia University glaciologist Robin Bell

Valery Lukin, the head of Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), which is in charge of the mission, said in Wednesday’s statement that his team reached the lake’s surface on Sunday.

Lukin has previously compared the Lake Vostok effort to the moon race that the Soviet Union lost to the United States, telling the Russian media he was proud that Russia will be the first this time. Although far from being the world’s deepest lake, the severe weather of Antarctica and the location’s remoteness made the project challenging.

‘There is no other place on Earth that has been in isolation for more than 20 million years,’ said Lev Savatyugin, a researcher with the AARI. ‘It’s a meeting with the unknown.’

Savatyugin said scientists hope to find primeval bacteria that could expand the human knowledge of the origins of life.

‘We need to see what we have here before we send missions to ice-crusted moons, like Jupiter’s moon Europa,’ he said.

Lake Vostok is 160 miles  long and 30 miles across at its widest point, similar in area to Lake Ontario. It lies about 2.4 miles beneath the surface and is the largest in a web of nearly 400 known subglacial lakes in Antarctica. The lake is warmed underneath by geothermal energy.

Sample: An ice core is seen at the Vostok camp in Antarctica on April 5, 2010

The drilling in the area began in 1989 and dragged on slowly due to funding shortages, equipment breakdowns, environmental concerns and severe cold.

While temperatures on the Vostok Station on the surface above have registered the coldest ever recorded on Earth, reaching minus 89 degrees Celsius (minus 128 degrees Fahrenheit), the water in the lake is warmed by the giant pressure of the ice crust and geothermal energy underneath.

The Russian team reached the lake just before they had to leave at the end of the Antarctic summer season.

Scientists believe that microbial life may exist in the dark depths of the lake despite its high pressure and constant cold – conditions similar to those expected to be found under the ice crust on Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s move Enceladus.

Hole lotta fun: Researchers work with drilling apparatus at the Vostok camp

Chilled drinks: Researchers enjoy a traditional Vostok welcome of vodka and bread

‘In the simplest sense, it can transform the way we think about life,’ NASA’s chief scientist Waleed Abdalati told the AP by email.

Scientists in other nations hope to follow up this discovery with similar projects. American and British teams are drilling to reach their own subglacial Antarctic lakes, but Bell said those lakes are smaller and younger than Vostok, which is the big scientific prize.

Some scientists hope that studies of Lake Vostok and other subglacial lakes will advance knowledge of Earth’s own climate and help predict its changes.

Cold call: A supply convoy arrives at the Vostok research camp in December 2009

Base of operations: The Russians are operating out of the Vostok Station, pictured here, which opened in December 1957

Cross country vehicles deliver food and fuel to the Vostok Antarctic research station, one of the coldest and most inhospitable places on Earth. It has recorded temperatures of -89 centigrade

“It is an important milestone that has been completed and a major achievement for the Russians because they’ve been working on this for years,” Professor Martin Siegert, a leading scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, which is trying to reach another Antarctic subglacial lake, Lake Ellsworth.

“The Russian team share our mission to understand subglacial lake environments and we look forward to developing collaborations with their scientists and also those from the U.S. and other nations, as we all embark on a quest to comprehend these pristine, extreme environments,” he said in an email.

In the future, Russian researchers plan to explore the lake using an underwater robot equipped with video cameras that would collect water samples and sediments from the bottom of the lake, a project still awaiting the approval of the Antarctic Treaty organization.

The prospect of lakes hidden under Antarctic ice was first put forward by Russian scientist and anarchist revolutionary, Prince Pyotr Kropotkin at the end of the 19th century. Russian geographer Andrei Kapitsa pointed at the likely location of the lake and named it following Soviet Antarctic missions in the 1950s and 1960s, but it wasn’t until 1994 that its existence was proven by Russian and British scientists.

Earlier this week state-run news agency in Russia claimed that an extraordinary cache of Hitler’s archives may be buried in a secret Nazi ice bunker near the spot where yesterday’s breakthrough was made.

‘It is thought that towards the end of the Second World War, the Nazis moved to the South Pole and started constructing a base at Lake Vostok,’ claimed RIA Novosti, the Russian state news agency.

It cited Admiral Karl Dontiz in 1943 saying ‘Germany’s submarine fleet is proud that it created an unassailable fortress for the Fuehrer on the other end of the world’, in Antarctica.

According to German naval archives, months after the Nazis surrendered to the Allies in April 1945, a U-530 submarine arrived at the South Pole from the Port of Kiel.

The crew are rumoured to have constructed a still undiscovered ice cave ‘and supposedly stored several boxes of relics from the Third Reich, including Hitler’s secret files’.

A later claim was that a U-977 submarine delivered remains of Hitler and Eva Braun to Antarctica in the hope they could be cloned from their DNA. The submariners then went to Argentina to surrender, it was claimed.

Microbiologists say that the lake could offer a glimpse of unique life forms. The project has been closely watched by both NASA and the Russian Space Agency.

One hope is that it will give a glimpse of conditions on Jupiter’s moon Europa where water is also believed to exist under a thick ice cover.

‘The discovery of microorganisms in Lake Vostok may mean that, perhaps, the first meeting with extraterrestrial life could happen on Europa,’ said Dr Vladimir Kotlyakov, Director of the Geography Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Specialists at the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute will now test a sample of water that has been sucked from the lake, and frozen.

Karl Doenitz German admiral, and commander of the submarine fleet 1939-1943: A Russian news agency has claimed that he built ‘an unassailable fortress for the Fuhrer’ near Lake Vostok

Experts say the lake, which could have a body of water the same size as Lake Ontario, could offer a glimpse of unseen lifeforms

Last year, the expedition stopped 10 to 50 metres short of the lake after the weather closed in and the scientists were forced to abandon the expedition.

Academics say they have found ‘the only giant super-clean water system on the planet’. They forecast the extraordinary 5,400 cubic kilometres of pristine water will be ‘twice cleaner than double-distilled water’, and any life will have developed in total isolation.

‘We’re not talking a new Loch Ness Monster – though we actually cannot really predict what to expect,’ an expedition source told Ria Novosti. ‘The lake water is a moving body, and despite being almost 4 km under the ice, there is an oxygen supply, and microorganisms have already been found in the ice drilled from close to the roof of Lake Vostok.’

Professor John Priscu told usnews.com in an email that the crews had been working ‘round the clock’ to finish the project before the Antarctic summer ended, which meant no planes could fly from the remote Vostok Station, where temperatures are currently around minus 66C.

‘If they were successful, their efforts will transform the way we do science in Antarctica and provide us with an entirely new view of what exists under the vast Antarctic ice sheet,’ he said.

Geothermal heat under the ice keeps the lake liquid, and its conditions are often described as ‘alien’ because they are thought to be akin to the subterranean lakes on Jupiter’s moon Europa. 

‘I think we’ll find unique organisms,’ Professor Priscu, a microbiologist at the University of Montana, and a veteran Antarctic researcher who is on the trip told Scientific American.

On January 13, Mr Priscu said the team was progressing well, drilling 5.7ft a day. He said they had switched from an ice drill to a thermal drill to melt through the last 16 to 32ft of ice.

‘This was the plan, but when you’re in the field, things can change,’ Priscu, who had been communicating with the group from his office in St. Petersburg, said.

‘This has never been done before,’ Priscu told OurAmazingPlanet. ‘It’s a one-of-a-kind drill, a one-of-a-kind borehole, and a one-of-a-kind lake, so I’m sure they’re making decisions on the fly all the time.’

The team had a deadline of Tuesday, before already ice-cold temperatures in the desolate spot drop another 40 degrees centigrade.

Valery Lukin, chief of the Russian Antactic Expedition, said last month: ‘We do not know what is waiting for us down there.’

Cold hard facts: Drilling milestones reached and marked on the wall are seen at the Vostok camp in Antarctica in June 2010

Harsh conditions: The Russian team have also worked with French and American scientists on the project at Vostok Station

Antarctica, McMurdo Station, boxes of ice cores from Lake Vostok beneath the polar plateau

Treacherous island: The red circle shows the location of Vostok Station, the remote polar station where the scientists drilled to the buried lake

Drill: Lake Vostok, seen in this satellite image, is one of the most inhospitable environments on earth. During drilling at the site temperatures have hit -66C

On July 21, 1983, temperatures at Vostok Station hit the lowest level ever recorded on Earth – minus 89.2C.

When the breakthrough moment comes they must take care not to contaminate the hidden underground world with bacteria and fluids from the drilling.

To make sure the water stays completely pure, the machinery will not even touch the lake.

Instead suction will be used to suck samples of the unique water into the borehole, where it will freeze before being raised to the surface for analysis.

Vostok Station, 1967: A supply plane delivers foodstuffs and equipment to Vostok polar station

The team also faces the risk of an explosion with oxygen and nitrogen trapped below.

They are trying to make sure only a small amount of air can escape to avert the risk.

The scientists have been drilling 24 hours a day in three shifts as they race to break through before winter descends.

Environmental groups have criticised the work on the site – and the chemicals used such as kerosene to keep the hole open.

Others have said the site should not be explored but instead left in pristine condition.

Lake Vostok: Russian scientists drilling into ‘alien’ Antarctic lake buried for 20m years

• Antarctic summer will come to an end within days – team’s last chance to leave the station
  
• Conditions in lake similar to lakes on moons of Saturn and Jupiter
  
• Remote station recorded coldest-ever temperature on earth: -89C
  

By Rob Cooper and Thomas Durante

Last updated at 1:22 PM on 4th February 2012

A team of Russian scientists has mysteriously lost contact with colleagues in the U.S. as they drill into a lake buried beneath the Antarctic ice for 20 million years.

The scientists had been battling conditions of minus 66C at Lake Vostok, as they raced to drill into a lake buried two miles beneath the ice before the weather closed in. The scientists hope the lake’s untouched water will reveal more about life on our planet 20 million years ago.

The lake, in the most inhospitable region of the planet, is kept liquid by geothermal heat under the ice and its conditions are often described as ‘alien’ because they are thought to be akin to the subterranean lakes on Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Their radio silence has conjured chilling echoes of classic horror film The Thing, where scientists dig up a buried spacecraft in the Antarctic ice, only to unleash an extraterrestrial horror within. 

Base of operations: The Russians are operating out of the Vostok Station, pictured here, which opened in December 1957

Cross country vehicles deliver food and fuel to the Vostok Antarctic research station, one of the coldest and most inhospitable places on Earth. It has recorded temperatures of -89 centigrade

Hidden: A satellite image of Lake Vostok which has been buried under ice for 20million years. Russian scientists are on the verge of breaking through

Valery Lukin, chief of the Russian Antactic Expedition, said last month: ‘We do not know what is waiting for us down there.’

The water inside the lake will have had no contact with man-made pollutants or Earthly life forms for millions of years.

Last year the scientists working in freezing temperatures at Lake Vostok came within ten to 50 metres of the surface of the ‘relic lake’.

But with the summer almost over, the team will have to leave the remote site within days – before it gets too cold for a plane to land.

Robin E. Bell, a researcher at Columbia University who has visited the region, told MailOnline that the team is focused on getting their job done while they still can, and it’s premature to fear the worst.

Harsh conditions: The Russian teams, working out of this outpost over Lake Vostok, has only days before the temperatures become unbearable

John Carpenter’s The Thing: The 1982 classic centres on a group of scientists who dig up an alien buried under the Antarctic ice

Treacherous island: The red circle denotes the area of Antarctica where a team of Russian scientists were working before mysteriously losing contact

She said: ‘I wouldn’t read too much into it. When you’re doing something very challenging, the last thing you want to do is chat to people’.

Ms Bell added that the Lake Vostok expedition is very important to the Russians and that Mr Lukin’s team are ‘the best people to drill in the world’.

During drilling temperatures have sunk to minus 66C, and the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth was found at Vostok Station.

On July 21, 1983, temperatures hit minus 89.2C.

Drill: Lake Vostok, seen in this satellite image, is one of the most inhospitable environments on earth. During drilling at the site temperatureshave hit -66C

Equipment at the remote research station: Vostok Station in Antarctica is among the coldest and most hostile places on Earth

Antarctica, McMurdo Station, boxes of ice cores from Lake Vostok beneath the polar plateau

When the breakthrough moment comes they must take care not to contaminate the hidden underground world with bacteria and fluids from the drilling.

To make sure the water stays completely pure, the machinery will not even touch the lake.

Instead suction will be used to suck samples of the unique water into the borehole, where it will freeze before being raised to the surface for analysis.

The team also faces the risk of an explosion with oxygen and nitrogen trapped below.

They are trying to make sure only a small amount of air can escape to avert the risk.

The scientists have been drilling 24 hours a day in three shifts as they race to break through before winter descends.

John Priscu, a Montana State University researcher, told the Washington Post the Russian scientists told him they were just 40ft from where the waterline is thought to lie.

He told the newspaper: ‘This is a huge moment for science and exploration, breaking through to this enormous lake that we didn’t even know existed until the 1990s.

‘If it goes well, a breakthrough opens up a whole new chapter in our understanding of our planet and possibly moons in our solar system and planets far beyond.

‘If it doesn’t go well, it casts a pall over the whole effort to explore this wet underside of Antarctica.’

The lake is one of the largest bodies of freshwater in the world – matching Lake Ontario in its size. Its existence though suspected since the end of the 19th century was only confirmed by sonar and satellite imaging in the last decade and a half.

Specialists at the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute predict they will find ‘the only giant super-clean water system on the planet’.

Vostok Station, 1967: A supply plane delivers foodstuffs and equipment to Vostok polar station

They forecast the extraordinary 5,400 cubic kilometres of water in pristine Lake Vostok, encased by ice since before man existed, will be ‘twice cleaner than double-distilled water’.

There is also the strong prospect of discovering completely unknown life forms in its clear ancient waters, the largest and deepest sub-glacial lake in Antarctica.

Environmental groups have criticised the work on the site – and the chemicals used such as keosene to keep the hole open.

Others have said the site should not be explored but instead left in pristine condition.

The worst possible scenario could be the water suddenly shooting up through the hole when the breakthrough is made.

Up to a quarter of the lake’s water could shoot out of the hole, John Priscu said, if the worst fears are realised.

Former Vice President Al Gore is currently on an unrelated expedition near the Weddell Sea with Virgin magnate Richard Branson, filmmaker James Cameron and dozens of others.

Lake Vostok: Russian scientists on verge of drilling into Antarctic lake hidden under ice for 20MILLION years

• Antarctic summer will come to an end within days – team’s last chance to leave the station
  
• Conditions in lake similar to lakes on moons of Saturn and Jupiter
  
• Remote station recorded coldest-ever temperature on earth: -89C
  

By Rob Cooper

Last updated at 6:36 PM on 3rd February 2012

A team of Russian scientists has mysteriously lost contact with colleagues in the U.S. as they drill into a lake buried beneath the Antarctic ice for 20 million years.

The scientists had been battling conditions of minus 66C at Lake Vostok, as they raced to drill into a lake buried two miles beneath the ice before the weather closed in. They scientists hope the lake’s untouched water will reveal more about life on our planet 20 million years ago.

The lake, in the most inhospitable region of the planet, is kept liquid by geothermal heat under the ice and its conditions are often described as ‘alien’ because they are thought to be akin to the subterranean lakes on Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Their radio silence has conjured chilling echoes of classic horror film The Thing, where scientists dig up a buried spacecraft in the Antarctic ice, only to unleash an extraterrestrial horror within.

Cross country vehicles deliver food and fuel to the Vostok Antarctic research station, one of the coldest and most inhospitable places on Earth. It has recorded temperatures of -89 centigrade

Antarctica, McMurdo Station, boxes of ice cores from Lake Vostok beneath the polar plateau

Hidden: A satellite image of Lake Vostok which has been buried under ice for 20million years. Russian scientists are on the verge of breaking through

John Carpenter’s The Thing: The 1982 classic centres on a group of scientists who dig up an alien buried under the Antarctic ice

Valery Lukin, chief of the Russian Antactic Expedition, said last month: ‘We do not know what is waiting for us down there.’

The water inside the lake will have had no contact with man-made pollutants or Earthly life forms for millions of years. Twenty million years ago, the dinosaurs had already been wiped out, but life on Earth looked very different to what it does now – human beings and chimpanzees still shared a common ancestor when the water was sealed inside the lake.

Last year the scientists working in freezing temperatures at Lake Vostok came within ten to 50 metres of the surface of the ‘relic lake’.

But with the summer almost over, the team will have to leave the remote site within days – before it gets too cold for a plane to land.

Equipment at the remote research station: Vostok Station in Antarctica is among the coldest and most hostile places on Earth

Drill: Lake Vostok, seen in this satellite image, is one of the most inhospitable environments on earth. During drilling at the site temperatureshave hit -66C

It has been reported that a support team in the U.S. has been unable to make radio contact with the crew on the ice for the past five days.

The drilling operation is highly intricate – and dangerous.There is a risk of explosion from oxygen and nitrogen trapped in the lake.

Vostok Station is 3,488 metres – or 11,444 feet – above sea level, with devastating cyclonic winds, conditions are the most inhospitable on the planet. 

Altitude sickness is a common problem, and it takes a slow sledge a month to bring in supplies across the ice from the Mirny base station, a five-hour plane journey away.

During drilling temperatures have sunk to minus 66C, and the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth was found at Vostok station.

On July 21, 1983, temperatures hit minus 89.2C.

When the breakthrough moment comes they must take care not to contaminate the hidden underground world with bacteria and fluids from the drilling.

To make sure the water stays completely pure, the machinery will not even touch the lake.

Instead suction will be used to suck samples of the unique water into the borehole, where it will freeze before being raised to the surface for analysis.

The team also face the risk of an explosion with oxygen and nitrogen trapped below. They are trying to make sure only a small amount of air can escape to avert the risk.

Vostok Station, 1967: A supply plane delivers foodstuffs and equipment to Vostok polar station

The scientists have been drilling 24-hours a day in three shifts as they race to break through before winter descends.

John Priscu, a Montana State University researcher, told the Washington Post the Russian scientists told him they were just 40ft from where the waterline is thought to lie.

He told the newspaper: ‘This is a huge moment for science and exploration, breaking through to this enormous lake that we didn’t even know existed until the 1990s.

‘If it goes well, a breakthrough opens up a whole new chapter in our understanding of our planet and possibly moons in our solar system and planets far beyond.

‘If it doesn’t go well, it casts a pall over the whole effort to explore this wet underside of Antarctica.’

The lake is one of the largest bodies of freshwater in the world – matching Lake Ontario in its size. Its existence though suspected since the end of the 19th century was only confirmed by sonar and satellite imaging in the last decade and a half.

Specialists at the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute predict they will find ‘the only giant super-clean water system on the planet’.

They forecast the extraordinary 5,400 cubic kilometres of water in pristine Lake Vostok, encased by ice since before man existed, will be ‘twice cleaner than double-distilled water’.

There is also the strong prospect of discovering completely unknown life forms in its clear ancient waters, the largest and deepest sub-glacial lake in Antarctica.

Environmental groups have criticised the work on the site – and the chemicals used such as keosene to keep the hole open.

Others have said the site should not be explored but instead left in pristine condition.

The worst possible scenario could be the water suddenly shooting up through the hole when the breakthrough is made.

Up to a quarter of the lake’s water could shoot out of the hole, John Priscu said, if the worst fears are realised.

British explorers prepare to drill into lost Antarctic world buried beneath the ice for up to a million years

• Team faced -35C temperatures as they moved 70 tonnes of equipment to drilling site through mountain range
• Samples from 1.8 miles under the ice are expected to reveal more about the Earth’s past climate
• Drilling operation will be carried out in November

By Rob Cooper

Last updated at 8:23 AM on 16th January 2012

British explorers are preparing to drill through almost two miles of ice into an Antarctic lake as they seek clues about life one million years ago.

The team used a ‘tractor train’ to tow nearly 70 tonnes of equipment to the Lake Ellsworth drilling site which is one of the most hostile environments on earth as they prepare for the operation.

They will return in November to collect water and sediment from the buried lake using space industry standard ‘clean technology’.

British team: The UK flag flies at lake Ellsworth where the drilling will take place later this year. 70 tonnes of equipment has since been moved into place ready for the operation

They hope the samples will provide clues about the Earth’s past climate.

It could also help scientists assess the present-day stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and implications for future rises in the sea level.

The advance party, comprising four British engineers, braved temperatures of -35C as they transported the drilling equipment.

They used powerful tractors to tow heavy containers of equipment on sledges and skis across deep snow and through steep mountain passes.

Explorers: The team of four who are braving freezing conditions to work at the Lake Ellsworth site

Final frontier: The British team will live in tents at the site as they collect samples from 1.8miles below the ice

The 155-mile journey through the Ellsworth Mountain Range took them three days to complete.

Scientists have been planning the investigation for more than 15 years.

The Lake Ellsworth Programme Principal Investigator, Professor Martin Siegert from the University of Edinburgh, said: ‘The completion of this stage of the mission is a welcome one – we are now one step closer to finding out if new and unique forms of microbial life could have evolved in this environment.

‘The samples we hope to capture from Lake Ellsworth will be hugely valuable to the scientific community.

‘This year we will complete and test both the water sampling probe and the sediment corer.

Frozen wastes: Lake Ellsworth, where the drilling is being carried out, is in the West of Antarctica. There are more than 400 subglacial lakes across Antarctica

‘Extracted sediment samples could give us an important insight in to the ancient history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, including past collapse, which would have implications for future sea level rise.’

During phase two of the project researchers will use a high-pressure drill to create a borehole through 1.8miles of ice.

They will then lower a titanium probe to measure and sample the water, followed by a corer to extract sediment from the lake.

It will take around three days to drill through the ice and the scientists will have about 24 hours to gather samples before the hole starts to freeze over.

Plan: This graph shows how the team will create a 1.8mile borehole to the bottom of the lake over three days before lowering a corer to extract sediment

The equipment has been left one mile from the actual drilling site so that the location remains unaffected by the equipment’s presence.

Lake Ellsworth is around 8.6 miles long, 1.2-1.8 miles wide and 150m deep, around the size of Loch Katrine in the Trossachs, or Lake Windermere in the Lake District.

Chris Hill, Advance Party Member and Lake Ellsworth Programme Manager said: ‘This is a major milestone for the programme and we are delighted that our complex logistical operations were a success this season.

‘Working within the short Antarctic summer season adds pressure to our time on the continent, which is why we had to plan two stages of the programme.’

The Lake Ellsworth programme is a consortium, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), between British Antarctic Survey and the National Oceanography Centre – and the UK university sector.

More than 400 subglacial lakes have so far been discovered beneath Antarctica’s vast ice sheet.

A Russian team hopes soon to penetrate and collect samples from Lake Vostok in East Antarctica.