Lake Vostok is a huge unseen freshwater lake that has been completely isolated from the rest of the planet for millions of years. However these days, scientists have angered environmentalists with plans to sink a drilling rig into its waters. This lake was discovered in 1994 and ranges from 14,000 km. sq. (5,600 square miles) in length and 4 km (2.5 miles) deep in bleak Polar Plateau ice. Vostok has been estimated to be around 35 million years old and is 1,300 km (806 miles) from the South Pole.
Although the claim of discovery is credited to Australia, suspended under the Antarctic Treaty, many scientists and researchers have been doing studies on the area surrounding the lake. For example, Russia has had an ice station there for some years. In 1983, the Russian station measured the ice above the lake as the coldest ever temperature recorded on Earth - minus 89 degrees Centigrade.
Today there are American scientists that have a big interest in Lake Vostok. The group heading the biggest push to find what is in the lake comes from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The two groups want to practice on Lake Vostok so they can prepare for a mission to one of Jupiter's moons, Europa. "It does seem strange to us that in order to find life on another planet, they want to drill into Lake Vostok and contaminate it," a New Zealand environmentalist, Barry Weeber, said on Monday, Dec. 20.
His group, the Royal Forest and Bird Society, is part of the Washington-coordinated Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC). Another Washington group, The Antarctica Project (TAP), is leading the challenge to the Lake Vostok plans.
Earlier this month, the magazine Science reported that a team of U.S., French and Russian scientists had found bacteria in fragments of a piece of ice extracted from a depth of 3,600 meters (11,800 feet). This discovery happened to be on the surface just above Lake Vostok.
The latest issue of New Scientist says Lake Vostok's water has been isolated from air and sunlight for up to 25 million years. It said biologists, geologists and glaciologists were keen to get into the lake.
Weeber said that within the environmental community, there was concern at the proposed drilling method. Representing the environmentalists, he said, "They are talking about drilling straight down, and of course that involves drilling mud. What they are wanting to look at is quite unique and the first thing they will do is pollute it." Weeber also said that the NASA-JPL research teams were pushing the drilling proposal at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, which is effectively the parliament for the continent.
Environmentalists and concerned scientists were pressing their concerns and a new proposal has come up which calls for a special probe to be sent down and then sealed off from the rest of the world, before it sinks further through the ice and into the water. However, Weeber said there were still doubts about how sterile the probe would be. He conceded that the news of possible life forms made it scientifically compelling to find out what might be there. It was possible that Lake Vostok has some volcanic activity, which was creating sulphur-based life forms.
TAP is calling on its supporters to write to NASA-JPL urging them to utilize alternative methods in order to preserve the estimated oldest, most pristine lake in the world. Their concern is that NASA-JPL will endanger this exciting new discovery, thus contaminating its contents.
NASA officials think the Jovian tides have thawed an ocean of liquid water underneath its ice. However, TAP continued its opposition of the proposed drilling, saying, "Speculating that life may exist in this theoretical, extraterrestrial ocean, NASA plans to exploit Vostok for a trial exploratory run. More specifically, NASA is seeking to understand whether drilling into Europa will contaminate its waters. Contamination might corrupt the science and change Europa forever. With a single mistake, that is precisely what could happen to Lake Vostok."
TAP and ASOC do not want drilling "until technologies are developed that ensure there is no contamination of Lake Vostok by foreign microbes, drilling fluids, or any other contaminants." They say that Lake Vostok has an extraordinary uniqueness that may be overlooked by NASA-JPL researchers, thus putting forth the risk of endangering this lake. The environmentalist groups believe, "This lake is as singular and precious as Europa, and no less worthy of care."
This issue is sure to bring added controversy if the NASA-JPL research teams are given permission by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative parliament. As has been stated, environmentalists are concerned for the preservation and purity of the estimated 35 million year old lake. However, what must be understood is that they are just as curious as the scientific research teams that are planning to drill to find out what wonderful secrets this ancient lake has to offer. The only difference is that they aren't willing to compromise the lake just to simply get access to it. The main thing groups like TAP and ASOC are asking is that NASA-JPL use care and consideration for the object of which they are attempting to study. God willing, they will heed these requests
