Lake Vostok why should we drillit?

Russia is planning on drilling a 35 million year old lake in the middle of the Antarctica. This lake, Lake Vostok, is 670 meters deep or roughly 2198 feet deep and each liter or water contains approximately 2.5 liters of compressed air (Space Daily, Aug. 2003), now why is this, a good idea? This lake could contain new information on some of the blank spots in earth history. The information that is able to be collected from this lake could result in exponential growth in the interplanetary programs at NASA. These discoveries could also lead to new research in the evolutionary fields of the Earth.
Lake Vostok was discovered in 1996 after decades’ worth of seismic studies, radar surveys and satellite imaging and, underneath two miles of solid ice. Named after Vostok Station in Antarctica and being 30 by 140 miles large and over 3000 feet deep Lake Vostok is considered to be on of the largest lakes in the world, and is comparable to Lake Ontario. The water inside the lake has been hermetically sealed from air and light for up to the last 35 million years (Columbia University, 2003). Lake Vostok also contains the oldest water in the world, as said by Dr. Robin Bell of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,� Lake Vostok is absolu

Over the years that this Lake has been, being researched many of the scientists on the program have shown huge support for the project. Both Russian and British science programs have shown immense interest in sharing this project jointly with the United States. From the evidence shown, it could benefit mankind greatly to have the information presented by this unaltered waterscape. To be able to tap into this resource could possibly mean new vaccines and cures for disease and illness. It could lead to new information on the evolutionary strategies put into effect in the primordial era. This could also lead to more tactile evidence of life on other planets. With the information attainted from drilling down into Lake Vostok we could better prepare ourselves for planetary missions as such those to Mars, or one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa or Ganymede. This lake resembles very closely that of the surface of these places and may be of huge benefit to the NASA program. With these discoveries looming over us we may just be one small step away from learning a great deal about other planets.

With 2.5 miles of solid ice formed above it, Lake Vostok is to a scientist, what a Spanish Galleon is to a gold hunter. Each core of ice taken from above it is similar to a history book of the Earth’s past. Vostok’s existence was unknown until 30 years ago ‘when researchers combined decades’ worth of seismic studies, radar surveys and satellite imaging’ (Columbia University, 2003). Since then, scientists have been marveling at the potential to unlock the Earth’s prehistoric history along with possible evolutionary studies. Lake Vostok is one of more than 70 lakes identified underneath the icy crust of the Antarctic. However, none are more closely analogous with other extraterrestrial landscapes than that of Lake Vostok. This lake is one of the largest in magnitude, ranging up to one hundred and fifty miles long and thirty-one miles across, being closely comparable to that of Lake Ontario. Also, with a maximum depth of 1,800 feet it compares in depth with that of Lake Tahoe (Morton, 2000).

Lake Vostok has a wealth of untapped information about the Earth’s Previous History. It may contain a totally different array of plant and animal life than that of anything found on earth today. The scientists working at the station now, are skeptical of drilling into the lake itself. They are having difficulty devising a method of drilling down into the lake without contaminating such an untouched specimen as it may be.

This process comes about by the glacial movement across the top of the lake. For each movement of the glacial ice above it removes a certain amount of the lake water only to replace it with what’s coming across on the other side. “Our study is a critical step in the exploration of Lake Vostok,” Bell said. “These frozen lake water samples will record the passage of the ice sheet and the processes across the lake. The data shows that the location of the current research station on the lake may not be optimal for biological studies” (Geological Society, 2003).

These bacteria are older bacterium; from these we may be able to achieve a better understanding of more microbial evolution, making it easier to battle disease, also making it easier to create more and different antibiotics to fight sickness and infection. However, the bacterium found in the ice cores is relatively low in assortment, although the presences of only a few known groups have been fo