Russian Antarctica Team Poised to Reach the 14-Million Year Old Waters of Lake Vostok

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Russian scientists are very close to a mysterious lake in Antarctica. Only five meters until they reach this lake. Fifteen million years old maybe more, the location is deep beneath the icy crust of Antarctica. This frozen lake might contain prehistoric or unknown life. Now, Russian scientists are about make more drilling.

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It is now minus 40 degrees outside. But who cares? We work, we feel good. We need only 5 meters more until we reach end embedded Contexts Non Master Above Delimiter "We need only to go a little bit more''said Alexei Toerkeyev, head of the Russian polar station Vostok Station. His team has drilled for weeks more than 3750 meters deep below the polar cap, in an effort to get there before the end of the brief Antarctic summer. Here was the coldest temperature ever measured on Earth: minus 89.2 degrees Celsius. With the rapid sunset of winter, scientists are forced to leave by Sunday. "It is now minus 40 degrees outside''said Toerkeyev. "But who cares? We work, we feel good. We need only 5 meters until we achieve more.''The Lake Vostok, about the size of Lake Baikal in Siberia, is the largest and deepest of the lakes under the ice of one hundred and fifty south pole. The researchers suspecting the depths of the lake will reveal new life forms. This will probably clear how life on the planet was in ice age and how life evolved. It can provide a glimpse of living conditions in similar extreme conditions on Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa. "It is more like a strange planet where no man has gone before. We do not know what we will find''said Valery Lukin of the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute AARI in St. Petersburg, coordinated the mission. A century after the first expeditions to the South Pole, the discovery of the lakes under the ice in the nineties unleashed a new spirit of adventure. American and British researchers are rushing behind the Russians with similar missions to find other low-lying lakes. The Vostok Station is located directly above the hole. The hole was filled with kerosene and freon gas to prevent it to freeze over. The Russians are struggling with how they keep everything clean and how they can avoid a terrible virus back to the top. "I'm very excited, but there is no turning back,''said Alexei Akajkin scientist. "If you touch it, touch it for good.''

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