One of the World's Largest Lakes -- Unseen by Humans

озеро Восток

This blog generally does not report on breaking news, as I prefer to leave that to the more established news organizations and hipster bloggers. However, there was an astounding event that had been reported last month, and I feel most people either did not notice the news reports or did not realize the significance of the information. So, I will provide you with the highlights here, and you can be astonished after the fact.

The fact is this: There is a lake that is one of the largest in the world, and no ship has ever sailed across it; no human has ever seen it; there are no photographs of it. This will soon change. For comparison, here are the world's largest freshwater lakes:

• Lake Baikal (Russia) is the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume (23,600 cubic km), primarily because it is so deep  (744 meters average depth).

• Lake Tanganyika (East Africa) has about 18,900 cu. km.

• Lake Superior (U.S./Canada) has a surface area that is more than twice that of either Lake Baikal or Lake Tanganyika, so it is the largest in the world in that regard. It must be the largest, since it's name is "Superior." That's a give-away.  However, because of its relatively shallow average depth (147 meters), its volume totals only 11,600 cu. km. 

• Lake Malawi (East Africa) is close to Lake Tanganyika in surface area, but only a little over half as deep, so its volume is approximately 8,400 cu. km.

 Ok, that's it for the boring figures. Now for the interesting part. There is a lake that is not as large as the ones I've just mentioned, but it's larger by volume than any other freshwater lake on Earth. Its surface area (15,690 square km) is over 80% the size of Lake Ontario (U.S./Canada); however, since its average depth (344 meters) is four times that of Lake Ontario, it has more than three times the volume of water. In fact, it has 11 times the volume of Lake Erie.

Ok, that just sounded like more boring figures. Sorry. I'll liven it up for sure now: This lake is unlikely to found on most maps of the world. As I've mentioned above, it has never been seen by any human who ever lived. The existence of the lake was not even confirmed until 1993, and even since then, no one has ever taken any photographs of it or dipped their toes in it.

So, what's the catch? Is it on one of the moons of Saturn? No, it's on Earth, like I said above. Is it underground? No, not exactly. So, where the heck is this lake?

Antarctica.

Ah, so you think I tricked you because it must be frozen. No, it is not frozen. It's an enormous lake of fresh liquid freshwater in Antarctica.

Lake Vostok

Lake Vostok

Lake Vostok, located in the middle of Antarctica, is not underground; however, here is the catch: It is covered by about 4 kilometers (13,000 feet) of glacial ice. After many seismic and radar surveys, scientists from the Soviet Union set up Vostok Station. In 1983, the station recorded the coldest air temperature ever on Earth: -89 °C (-128 °F). Six years later, the Soviets began drilling into the ice. Of course it was the Soviets -- they were the ones who also drilled the deepest hole ever (see "The Deepest Hole in the World").

Vostok Station is located on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, so it sits about 3,488 meters (11,444 ft) above sea level, which is higher than the Pyrenees mountain range in Europe. The surface of the lake is about 500 m (1,600 ft) below sea level, which would make it the Earth's lowest elevation, even lower than the Dead Sea, whose surface is 423 m (1,388 ft) below sea level. I have now given you an easy way win a bar wager. 

The Soviets, and then the Russians, have been drilling through the ice sheet for about 23 years. The recent big news is that just last month they announced that they have finally reached the bottom of the ice sheet and were about to break through to the liquid lake. So, why did it take 23 years to drill 3,488 meters through ice when the Russians took almost the same amount of time to drill almost four times as deep through earth ("Deepest Hole...")?

On land, the problem was the high temperatures the deeper they drilled. With ice, it is the opposite problem -- freezing temperatures. The scientists cannot simply drill deep into the ice because it gets so cold that just a little condensation in the hole will immediately freeze, filling the hole. Therefore, they have had to use extremely hot water and chemicals to keep the hole intact. This has caused a lot of environmental concerns. In addition, unlike dry land, the ice sheet is constantly shifting, which also tends to destroy the drilled hole.

Ok, it's time to answer your main question: How can the water in the lake remain unfrozen liquid fresh water when it has over 13,000 feet of frozen ice on top of it? First of all, that's actually one of the reasons -- it has over 13,000 feet of frozen ice on top of it. The pressure exerted by that much ice is so great that it causes enough heat to melt ice. In addition, it is believed that heat from the earth below is also keeping the water in liquid form.

Ok, it's time to tell you the most interesting bit of all: What is in Lake Vostok? It is believed that the water has been there for as long as 20 million years -- untouched and uncontaminated by all the changes our planet has gone through since then, the Miocene Period. This is about the time that human-like creatures and ape-like creatures first split off into separate evolutionary paths from a common ancestor. It is very possible that species from 20 million years ago still exist within the waters of Lake Vostok! These creatures are most likely to be the size of bacteria, but it's possible that larger species exist as well. The water is likely to be rich in oxygen, and the temperature is within the habitable range of all life on Earth as we know it. Of course, light has not been able to reach that far through the ice, but scientists recently have already discovered many new ecosystems that exist without light.

So, what did the Russians find when they broke through to the lake? Well, they didn't break through to the lake, because the winter season was approaching in Antarctica, and they had to abandon their project for about 6 months. That was anti-climatic, wasn't it?

There is a huge controversy, because in order to maintain the integrity of the deep hole during the winter, the scientists filled it with 65 tons of kerosene. It is feared that the kerosene might leak or otherwise enter the lake, contaminating what might be the most unique biological environment every discovered. Even if the scientists do come back in the Antarctic summer and remove all the kerosene, there still is the problem of breaking through the ice to the water below -- when the first hole is made to the lake, the pressure from the lake will shoot its contents up the drill hole, but that water is likely to freeze immediately, resealing the hole. So, how will the scientists be able to secure samples of the lake water? Actually, they don't yet know. How will they prevent contamination of the water by the drill bit itself? They don't know yet.

Vostok is a lake, with its life under ice, and a perfect disguise above.

So, a few months from now, you are likely to hear throughout the news media that the Russians have broken through to Lake Vostok, and their discoveries will be publicized for all to know. At that time, you will be able to understand the significance, and tell your friends that you already knew all about this -- except the part about the Lake People escaping from their confinement to enslave Humankind.

Earth in the Miocene Period