Antarctica Lake

1996/10/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Hidrologia

Under the ice of Antarctica, at great depth, is a huge lake. It is a very attractive lake for scientists, as there may be life forms a million years ago. Twenty years ago they realized that there could be a lake there, because a plane that passed above received a special echo from the radar.

Thanks to the images sent by the European satellite ERS1, Gordon Robin and his team from the University of Cambridge were able to know in detail the location of the lake. It is 14,000 square kilometers and is 4,000 meters deep, just below the scientific drilling station called Vostok. As a result, scientists have abandoned drilling to contaminate the lake. The work has been left until “watertight” drilling techniques are prepared.

Biologists hope to find living microorganisms isolated in sediments for a million years. This hypothesis is very likely because some bacteria are able to last for thousands of years in very difficult conditions.