Scientists: Fish May Live in Antarctica’s Largest Subglacial Lake
OutdoorHub Reporters 07.10.13
Lake Vostok lies hidden under the surface of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, over 13,000 feet deep. Conditions in the lake are nigh-inhospitable and water temperatures hover just slightly below freezing, but researchers suspect that despite this, fish and other wildlife may exist in the subglacial lake.
Its nearby namesake, Vostok Station, boasts the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth at -128 degrees Fahrenheit. The lake manages to keep at a steady 27 degrees Fahrenheit because of geothermal heat rising from the Earth’s center and the crushing pressure of ice stacked above. According to the BBC, a recent drilling to reach the lake has found bacteria commonly associated with species of mollusks and fish. The discovery has led researchers to believe that there may indeed be marine life living under the Antarctica’s surface.
The freshwater lake was first discovered by Russian scientists and geographers in the late 1950s. They had suspected that water ran beneath Antarctica’s icy surface, but lacked the means to prove their theory. Following ice-penetrating radar surveys and later sweeps from high-frequency satellite arrays, it became clear that a system of subglacial lakes and rivers lies beneath the snowbound continent. Scientists are particularly interested in these bodies of water because their enclosed nature parallels conditions found elsewhere in the solar system, especially in the icy moons orbiting the two gas giants Jupiter and Saturn.
The report published by researchers in PLOS One calls the lake “anything but sterile.” In fact, life in Lake Vostok could have developed entirely independent of the outside world.
“Lake Vostok might contain a complex web of organisms, zones and habitats that have developed over the tens of millions of years of its existence,” reported the study.
Scientists are still attempting to drill through to the lake for more research samples. It is a task made more difficult by the fact that Lake Vostok is the fourth deepest known lake in the world, as well as the seventh largest by volume.
