Lake Vostok Antarctica: breakthrough imminent.

reply to post by JJRichey


Good find. I've been curious as all get-out about the science team for a week now.

If they ARE just dark because they want to hit their deadline and do all their sampling before the window closes, which makes a whole lot of sense, I wonder why they didn't take 3 minutes to make one final communication saying "Yup, we got through, and since we only have a few days, we're going to sample around the clock. Expect to hear from us in 8 days."

That said, they might have done just that. Information about this whole thing seems hard to come by.

OH wow this guy confirmed my theory! I think this what happened to these guys

He said the doomsday scenario for the Russian breakthrough would be if the suddenly released water pushed its way past machinery to block it and shot up the narrow borehole. The result, he said, could be an enormous geyser that could empty a quarter of the lake.

Legit News Article

reply to post by truthinfact


and would that explain the bacteria found in the area?
Perhaps there was a leak somewhere else?

People thought BP got stung for their damage they caused.....is there even a number or prison sentence suitable enough for destroying an environment on such a scale as this could possibly turn in to?

reply to post by jazz10


Well they found ancient Microbes in the ice samples, aka archaebacteria. Which is Harmless stuff, ..and fascinating stuff.

I don't think a virus killed them,

if 1/4th of lake vostok emptied itself, they all drowned. Its the 7th largest lake in the world...

reply to post by truthinfact


That's an odd article. 'Slushy ice' on the top of the lake? I read that tha lake has a dome of 'air' above it created by the warm lake water temperature that is in the 50-65deg F range. That would rule out 'slushy ice' or immediately reaching water once they penetrate.

reply to post by jtma508


unless the volcanic area below moved up and pushed water up with it?
2nd

Originally posted by jtma508
reply to post by truthinfact

 

That's an odd article. 'Slushy ice' on the top of the lake? I read that tha lake has a dome of 'air' above it created by the warm lake water temperature that is in the 50-65deg F range. That would rule out 'slushy ice' or immediately reaching water once they penetrate.

That "dome of air" is oxygen and nitrogen gases that have been building up for millions of years.... quite a bit if pressure down there. I think if something went wrong, its probably that.

Imagine what that geyser would look like.. You'd be able to see it from space probably...

Interesting enough Fox News has kept their headline about the Russian team as of this morning, and are now listing them as "missing" for six days now:

www.foxnews.com...

Where as US World News reported yesterday that the Fox article is a "Flub":

www.usnews.com...

What I find interesting is how USN reports that they are "Safe", without saying how they know this, other than reporting that John Priscu said:

"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."

The USN report is 16 hours old, and as I was typing this the Fox report was one of their Headlines, but has now been removed as a headline.

Also interesting is that searches on CNN and MSNBC do not list any report on the Russians.

Hope we hear something soon as it will be interesting to see what they find.

The Australian Daily Telegraph reports the following:

"They need to be out by the sixth of February," Dr Pearce said, when winter sets in and temperatures drop another 40 degrees Centigrade. Vostok Station boasts the lowest recorded temperature on Earth, -89.4C.

Antarctic scientists carry Iridium satellite phones for communication, he said, but there are spots without coverage. The scientists may have encountered a technical issue, he speculated, or perhaps they have simply packed up and are traveling home - keeping their discoveries to themselves. "I don't think there's anything sinister or ominous," Dr Pearce said.

www.dailytelegraph.com.au...

Current temperatures at Vostok Station:



The great escape:



www.aari.aq...

That means its already too late, the 5th of February is already here! How can they make it out from the center of Antarctica?? thats a long long journey back to the edge of the Ice....

Originally posted by truthinfact
That means its already too late, the 5th of February is already here! How can they make it out from the center of Antarctica?? thats a long long journey back to the edge of the Ice....

They may fly out in a C-130 or equivalent. The link I posted before shows a C-130 landing at Vostok in 1998.

So if it's too late, they can only try this potentially risky operation again this upcoming December.

Yep, December 2012.

I have a feeling that they will be contacted soon and all is fine. That is my opinion.
All safe and all well and pretty annoyed at a technical fault.

Shine on you crazy diamond

reply to post by amongus


eh isnt it a joint mission like usa and russia so are you saying the americans killed the russians?.... or that some one killed the Russians AND the Americans .................that would be a twist

Originally posted by waveydavey
Don't know how this stuff works but if the water is under pressure as mentioned several times that it will shoot out, is it not plausible that this pressure is helping to support the ice above??
Such a pressure escape could lead to the whole 'roof' of ice over the lake to collapse could it not??

Good point but the ice is about 2 miles thick and is quite strong.
I am wondering, how can they know the water in under pressure if they haven't sampled the area yet?
One other thing, you can't compress a liquid so the water itself can't be pressurized but I read shortly after they found the lake that there was a large cavernous 'void' above the lake; in other words, there was a high ceiling and they think the water (which is warm) evaporates, collects on the 'roof', then it 'rains' back down into the lake making it an Eco-system in it's own right!
That being said, remembering that you can't compress a liquid, the only way the water could come back up the drilled shaft is if they are drilling on the edge of the lake and break through where it is flooded therefore the pressure in the airspace above the lake will push down on the water forcing it up the shaft.... that is, if indeed the airspace is pressurized.
My feeling is they are doing a lot of guessing and better be right, let's look at a possible outcome; assuming there is a high pressure void above the lake and they drill into it all the kerosene (taking into account the weight of 60 tons) unless there is a LOT of pressure to blow out the kerosene it will bubble and once the pressure has equalized to the atmosphere it will drain into the lake. No doubt that will happen, physics don't lie so even if they succeed in drilling into water only and a perfect scenario happens and the water comes out of the hole, there will be residual kerosine in the shaft which will then contaminate the lake water.
I feel these Russians are just taking chances to the be the first to 'get there' and don't really care about the consequences, not unlike the Soviet Union putting men in space when they were in such danger they waited till they returned to earth before announcing the flight!
I might be totally wrong but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to sample an 'alien world' right here on earth and I fear they are going to cause nothing but ruin.

I'm not really 'cheering them on' in their attempts to breach what may be millions of years old with life in there. I'm also not going to interject some notion that bacteria released from such breach could cause a pandemic. Who really cares if they contaminate that underground water? It's not like a vacation spot. I'm also not against any inquisitive new science discovery. I just want to say one thing.

How old do you think some of the oil reserves we tap and use everyday are?

If the Russians have, in fact, penetrated into the lake that would explain why they are 'out of contact'. I'm sure whatever they find will be a clsoely guarded secret.

Originally posted by Illustronic


How old do you think some of the oil reserves we tap and use everyday are?

Is there life in the oil that doesn't exist anywhere on the planet, and hasn't existed anywhere else for millions of years? Ask yourself that question and then you should be able to answer your own.

Originally posted by Illustronic
I'm not really 'cheering them on' in their attempts to breach what may be millions of years old with life in there. I'm also not going to interject some notion that bacteria released from such breach could cause a pandemic. Who really cares if they contaminate that underground water? It's not like a vacation spot. I'm also not against any inquisitive new science discovery. I just want to say one thing.

How old do you think some of the oil reserves we tap and use everyday are?

Your sense of science and earth is really messed up! Just because you can't vacation' there you don't care if they destroy it?
Also, pumping oil out of the ground can't even begin to compare to finding a lake.... oil wells doesn't harbor possible life!

Originally posted by JJRichey
reply to post by quedup

 

According to some sources, they aren't lost...fox news..err..foxxed up. www.usnews.com... ub-russian-vostok-lake-scientists-safe

And I am sure these other sources that claim they are ok would tell the honest truth if something went horribly wrong down there. Sorry but I don't buy into any of it from any source as they all have shown time and again to have an agenda. Point is we will not know the truth until it's either too late or it's filtered through the usual means. I firmly believe that something went tragically wrong with their experiment down there and we are just getting misled as usual as they try to contain whatever it is that happened. Time will tell if these so called important people never make a public appearance again.