Lake Vostok Antarctica: breakthrough imminent.

Its been 5 days.

'The Thing' film springs to mind. Imagine if an alien has sabotaged the station?

I seriously hope they're not dead since this planet could do with some fresh exciting information from beneath that lake.

Just to let yall know, that lake might be 15-20 million years old, but the water is relatively new. There is other lakes and it is damn near accepted that there is river-like passages connecting some of them. Water down there has probably been totally replaced a bazillion times over. That water is no older then 13-14 thousand years old.

The pressure from the ice keeps the deep water from melting. And though chances are good for some life (microbial), it is pretty much not possible for anything "advanced" to come out of there. So we can hopefully now dial back the fear mongering and outlandish sci-fi scenarios.

Those sneaky russians!



I wonder what the first image of this lake will look like, it may even re-classify our definition of perfection..

Who knows, looking forward to the results of this though!

I've been awaiting more news on this since i first heard about it last year sometime.

What an interesting turn of events that they haven't heard from the russians in 5 days.

Of course, with conditions as they are, it could be possible that their communication equipment is down. Or they want all the glory for themselves.

Or..... *tinfoil hat on*

Assassinated, killed by an alien virus, awakened Cthulhu

This just screams 'The Thing' movie that got released as a remake a few months back. Even in that movie there is a large metallic object at one end of the lake just like in real life. This metallic object interests me more than any 'creatures' in the lake.

isane that they couldnt think to install some sort of vacum door or pressure seal to keep teh environment intact!
that would be too much common sense , i thought russia were good at that!

Originally posted by Char-Lee

Originally posted by Zecharia
Heres a link with some interesting views on possible reasons for the magnetic anomaly.

Whats is happening at the south pole

Whatever they find, it will probably be literal years before they tell the public...stupid people all we do is pay the bills! Hoping Russia will be more forthcoming with info, but if there is a possible bio or other weapon to be had i doubt it.

You do realise that they probably wont find anything earth shattering in there right? And to talk about a bio or other (what other could that be??) weapon is, frankly, ridiculous.

And as for the public paying for this venture. Do we know this? Do we know if its publicly or privately funded?

Why does everything have to be doom and gloom with you guys? Sheesh

reply to post by 3danimator


Nothing like a warm coffee, cigarette and a conspiracy to warm the cockles. It's what we do

WOW! This is too surreal. They could be minutes before one of the greatest discoveries of our time and then the Russians go dark for 5 days, 6 now if I'm not mistaken. I seriously wonder what is going on down there right now? More importantly, WHAT could possibly be down there? 20 million years is more then enough for some type of life form to be brought about....and that anomaly..GAH!!!! This is mind boggling.

Originally posted by ujustneverknow
Why can't we Humans just leave anything alone? I understand the importance of Science and all but seriously , why do we have to stick our noses in everything?

Then you don't understand the importance of science.

reply to post by Arken


I'm with you on this one Arken, not knowing what's down there how can anyone say it's safe? Even if it's just microbial life of its evolved separately who knows what threat it might be. Look forward to reading the whole thread.

reply to post by jazz10


Yeah its kinda annoying to take the time and read a whole thread only to see the same posts over and over.

I never post until I read thru the whole thread and most times someone else has said exactly what I was going to say already.

I hope that they have capped this pressure better than BP capped the gulf oil drill.

Or else they could end up with on hell of a artisian well.

Two miles of ice on top of 5000 feet of 60'F water in -40'F temps plus the pressure of the magma vents possibility of thin earth crust under the lake. A lot to consider.

Imagine the equipment failure rate at -40 soon to be -80 temps I think the lowest temp recorded there was -140'F.


uh oh, just spied this link in another post. another ATS poster link


Superbugs spied off the Antarctic coast by B3lz3Buth...Sorry didnt figure out how to post links to other threads.

Maybe a clue to what will be found.

reply to post by lunchmanstan


I am with ya! I read through the entire thread and all replies
(as I always do) and I was feeling like the repeat button was being hit, over and over again. Lots of good info though! Seems like ATS members have all the bases covered thus far!

With the way technology has improved over the past years im sure the blokes there know what there doing. They dont just send anyone to places like that, i think we need to stop watching these films and stop expecting something terrible to go wrong. If they do find something of great importance down there then they probably wont tell us, and were have to wait untill we can find out from a leaked source of some kind. ( as usual.)

reply to post by Thain Esh Kelch


Of course I do , I said I did,it's just a shame that this Earth is being violated on a daily basis , fracking , mining , clearing forests to build , building,new highways,animals being displaced and the list goes on and on...

I'm all for moving forward and technology but not at the expense of our safety and the Earths well being.

What if the scientists do not respond to calls for a longer time. Are there plans for some kind of rescue mission to look after them?

This is all part of the soft landing approach to them telling us about life on Mars and the Moons of Jupiter and Saturn

Originally posted by JustJoe
This is all part of the soft landing approach to them telling us about life on Mars and the Moons of Jupiter and Saturn

Would be the smart way to break the news that we are "not alone" to us.

There's a lot going on in that aspect. For me it truly started to solidify the moment they found those extremophiles near the under-water vents.
For scientists too, that was a eye-opener. Had they formerly adhered to a strict "Oxygen, light and low temperatures"are the basics of life, the extremophiles cured that assumption pretty good.

On, to seas under the scarred ice on Jupiter's moon, Water on Mars, Exo-planets pretty close to the "goldi-locks zone" etc. etc. (and don't forget particles that -apparently- violate relativity) well You get the picture..

We are sure living in exiting times. Let's hope this all comes to fruition, before we blow eachother -and the World with it- to smithereens over some tribal squabbles.

Originally posted by Chance321
reply to post by Arken

 

Not really sure what to feel about this. It's . . interesting. But, here's the part that I'm a little leary of, the scientist are worried about contaminating the lake from the drill bit, but I'd be more concerned with the possibility of releasing something into the air that could have an effect on man. Hasn't seen light in 20 million years? Who really knows what they may release into the air? Probably nothing, but still it should be a consideration, shouldn't it?

Of course. Which is why I think they're either lying about not knowing what's under there; or all their education was to no avail because they are hopelessly stupid.
In which case, considering they're representatives of "science", we really have a lot to fear.
And I don't mean from the lake.