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Antarctica’s Frozen Lake Vostok, Isolated for 20 Million Years, Breached By Russian Drills

The Russian scientists drilling into ancient buried Antarctic Lake Vostok have reached their destination, the Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported today. The team is apparently alive and well despite a week of suspicious radio silence, but more details are to come about what they’ve found buried under two miles of ice.

“Yesterday, our scientists stopped drilling at the depth of 3,768 meters and reached the surface of the sub-glacial lake,” the source reportedly said in a story posted Monday, Feb. 6.

» via Popular Science

A brutal place, known for the lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth, harboring a lake miles below the surface of ancient ice. 

The lake itself is a completely closed system, perhaps only recycled through Antarctic ice every 10,000 years. It’s completely dark but contains oxygen and nutrients that could theoretically support extreme life. Now the search begins for anything that might be living down there, in perhaps the coldest spot on our planet. As long as they don’t contaminate it with something from up above, that is. Here’s a diagram of the expedition:

What will they find?