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Originally posted by David
Lake Vostok is located almost in the center of the Antarctic. It is almost as big as Lake Ontario. Mysterious is absolutely the right word to describe this huge body of water. Last summer in the Antarctic SOAR (Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research flew 36, 4 hour missions over Lake Vostok. Every second instruments in the Twin Otter airplane measured gravitational attractions, radar readings, and 10 different measures on a magnetometer. They may have found more mysteries than they solved. [ed: details of the original story are on the Antarctic Sun.]
Probably the biggest mystery is evidence of a huge magnetic anomoly. Encompassing the Southwest corner of the lake, 65 X 46 miles there are indications that the geological structure changes beneath the lake. One quick theory is that this indicates a thinner crust in the surface of the continent. Another mystery is that ice core samples have proved that micro-organisms live 11,886 feet deep under the ice. That is over 2 miles down! If the ice core is drilled another 400 feet or so it will enter an pristine atmosphere sealed off for millions of years. Air samples can tell scientists a lot about our planets past. BTW, back to the ice core. Each year as the snow falls and melts and refreezes it forms a geological diary that scientist decode and read to tell them what was happening in the worlds atmosphere going backward in time at least 400,000 years. Back to Lake Vostok. Beneath the trapped atmosphere lies equally pristine water. Is there life there? If there is it makes one lake up and out to Europa the ice covered moon orbiting Jupiter. Don't bet against life. I think you will lose. Beneath the water is the bed of the lake. How was this huge lake formed? Sediment from the lake bed can provide the answers. And the deepest mystery (pun intended). Just what did cause that HUGE MAGNETIC ANOMALY.
From the same site as the previous article
Originally posted by David
Lake Vostok is located almost in the center of the Antarctic. It is almost as big as Lake Ontario. Mysterious is absolutely the right word to describe this huge body of water. Last summer in the Antarctic SOAR (Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research flew 36, 4 hour missions over Lake Vostok. Every second instruments in the Twin Otter airplane measured gravitational attractions, radar readings, and 10 different measures on a magnetometer. They may have found more mysteries than they solved. [ed: details of the original story are on the Antarctic Sun.]
Probably the biggest mystery is evidence of a huge magnetic anomoly. Encompassing the Southwest corner of the lake, 65 X 46 miles there are indications that the geological structure changes beneath the lake. One quick theory is that this indicates a thinner crust in the surface of the continent. Another mystery is that ice core samples have proved that micro-organisms live 11,886 feet deep under the ice. That is over 2 miles down! If the ice core is drilled another 400 feet or so it will enter an pristine atmosphere sealed off for millions of years. Air samples can tell scientists a lot about our planets past. BTW, back to the ice core. Each year as the snow falls and melts and refreezes it forms a geological diary that scientist decode and read to tell them what was happening in the worlds atmosphere going backward in time at least 400,000 years. Back to Lake Vostok. Beneath the trapped atmosphere lies equally pristine water. Is there life there? If there is it makes one lake up and out to Europa the ice covered moon orbiting Jupiter. Don't bet against life. I think you will lose. Beneath the water is the bed of the lake. How was this huge lake formed? Sediment from the lake bed can provide the answers. And the deepest mystery (pun intended). Just what did cause that HUGE MAGNETIC ANOMALY.
From the same site as the previous article
Originally posted by Valhall
I've got a clue what it would reveal. Same thing found in Siberia along the polar circle...evidence that the continent of Antarctica wasn't a big block of ice, but a nice fertile landscape...and then all of a sudden POW! things got real cold real fast.
BUT, what benefit is it to finding that out? Could it possibly be that they are doing this just for the sake of knowledge??? And when it flies in the face of current scientific geologic theories of "noncataclysmic events"...hmmm. It gets weirder.
p.s. For anybody even considering that I don't know Siberia is on the NORTHERN polar circle...forget it. If the northern polar circle was not at the environmental conditions it is now, it stands to reason neither was the southern.
[Edited on 29-7-2003 by Valhall]
Originally posted by dragonrider
As I had only one semester of Geology, can anyone speculate on the odds that a precious (uranium) mineral source may be located here?? Posted by Tyriffic
As Antarctica is largely shield rock (granitic) I would say its a safe bet there may be a good deal of transuranic material there. However, such material generally doesnt create a significant magnetic anomally, certainly not of the scale observed there.
Also, even if Uranium or something similar were found there in any decent quantity, A, per international treaty, its hands off, and B, the cost and effort to produce it would be astronomical and uneconomical compared to sources in South Africa, and hell even South Texas!