Lake Vostok

Wetbench4

I don't know if any of you have been following the lake vostok story?? Basically its an underwater lake, the size of an ocean, thats been cut off from the surface for possibly 15 million years. Its under a few kilometers of ice in the south pole. Its a whole new unexplored world.

The russians have been drilling down to it for the last 10+ years and got to with in 30 meters this time last year, but they only have until february before the winter set in so they had to wait until this year to finish. I've been watching this story and last week they said they were within hours of breaking through and, at the risk of sounding like an xfiles episode, they havent been heard from since....... That was 5 days ago......

Has anyone watched that movie "The Thing"..

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/22524/lake_vostok_antartica_russian_scientists_have_been_radio_silent_for_5_days/index.html

weisses

Interesting indeed

weisses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APaBqRp27zU

ASOT

Still no contact ….

2 finished on wetbench 6 there..

Lone Stone

I wouldnt be surprised if some kind of toxic gas shot up and killed them, Beside's i thought they were not going to use the Russian tunnel didnt nasa start a new tunnel with a special drill as to not contaminate the place ?

Mercurius

ASOT wrote: »

Still no contact ….

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/02/03/fox-flub-russian-vostok-lake-scientists-safe

ASOT

Mercurius wrote: »

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/02/03/fox-flub-russian-vostok-lake-scientists-safe

I dont understand this link ? i was right theirs still not been ay contact from them.

ASOT

ASOT wrote: »

I dont understand this link ? i was right theirs still not been ay contact from them.

Seems like it was pretty clear to me:

The team of Russian scientists trying to uncover the prehistoric Lake Vostok miles beneath a surface of Antarctic ice are not lost, according to American Antarctic explorer John Priscu.

"I can assure you that they are not lost or out of contact," he wrote in an email. "I never said the Russians were lost."

As the guy says, they've only got another day or two to work before they need to leave for the Antarctic winter. So it's probably just that they aren't communicating as much, or that they haven't been bothered wasting time to talk to the media.

ASOT

King Mob wrote: »

Seems like it was pretty clear to me:


As the guy says, they've only got another day or two to work before they need to leave for the Antarctic winter. So it's probably just that they aren't communicating as much, or that they haven't been bothered wasting time to talk to the media.

Their all not working at the same time, their working in three shifts so i dont understand how they cant just pop in and say yeah were ok. My point was they may say there not lost ect but they have 0 proof until theirs contact. Thats what i was getting at.

ASOT

ASOT wrote: »

Their all not working at the same time, their working in three shifts so i dont understand how they cant just pop in and say yeah were ok.

But the guy in the article does say that they do that.
They are checking in with someone, probably as they always did before the initial article. Chances are that they don't even know or care that Fox has declared them "out of contact".

It's likely that nearing the goal so close to when they need to leave they're probably working as hard as they can, so I'd imagine that when they're not working they're sleeping, and probably don't want to waste time talking to the media.

ASOT wrote: »

My point was they may say there not lost ect but they have 0 proof until theirs contact. Thats what i was getting at.

And how exactly do you know that they are out of contact in the first place?
Because that seems to be based on the word of the same guy, just taken out of context and sensationalised.

Jeboa Safari

They're reporting success
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16907998

jackiebaron

Can anyone tell me why there isn't a year-round presence in Antarctica? I understand that it gets dark and bitterly cold in winter there. But why not construct and permanent station there?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

because if they did someone would just accuse them of trying to blow it up, or build a jewish only ark for when planet nibiru destroys the planet in 2012

Ellis Dee

jackiebaron wrote: »

Can anyone tell me why there isn't a year-round presence in Antarctica? I understand that it gets dark and bitterly cold in winter there. But why not construct and permanent station there?

In fact, there is a year-round presence there, as this Wikipedia text reveals:

"Antarctica has no permanent residents, but a number of governments maintain permanent manned research stations throughout the continent. The number of people conducting and supporting scientific research and other work on the continent and its nearby islands varies from about 1,000 in winter to about 5,000 in the summer. Many of the stations are staffed year-round, the winter-over personnel typically arriving from their home countries for a one-year assignment. An Orthodox church, Trinity Church, opened in 2004 at the Russian Bellingshausen Station is also manned year-round by one or two priests, who are similarly rotated every year"

Full article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica

Maudi

so whats the latest on this?and anybody any idea on what they will find?so far down.no light.im presuming nothing but maybe bacteria...wouldnt anything bigger have eaten anything smaller out of existance?

sbsquarepants

Why would that have happened?
The big fish haven't eaten the small ones out of existence in other oceans? There have been other examples of isolated evolution found, like the movile cave in romania for example, with dozens of strange species living perfectly happily in them. In fact the cave in romania contains an entire ecosystem that has no connection whatsoever to photosynthesis, which was once thought to be totally impossible. It appears that life is most likely, far more common than previously thought possible.

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/pdfs/data/1996/149-26/14926-05.pdf