Russians About to Drill Into 20 Million-Year-Old Lake Beneath Antarctica

"Two and a half miles under the Earth lies Lake Vostok, which hasn't seen the light of day in 20 million years. It's taken almost 20 years of drilling, but Russian scientists are about to break through and explore the lake at the bottom of the world . . ." (Gizmodo)

Wait! Haven't we seen this movie? The one where the good scientist says, "That's funny. I've never seen a reading like this before," and the evil or possibly just misguided scientist says, "Ignore it, it's just magnetic flux."

According to the Washington Post, while scientists are excited about what they might find there, they are equally worried "about contaminating the lake with drilling fluids and bacteria, and the potentially explosive 'de-gassing' of a body of water that has especially high concentrations of oxygen and nitrogen."

What will they find under there? Researchers say there might be something resembling life forms from another planet. According to Gizmodo, "Scientists are giddy over the possibility of observing life that's been completely undisturbed for millions of years, since back when Antarctica was attached to Australia."

Photo: Flying Fish by istolethetv, Creative Commons license

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