On February 5th , more than twenty long time after they first started drill , Russian scientist finally divulge through the last remaining level of an Methedrine canvas that has separated Lake Vostok from the rest of the macrocosm for twenty million years .
But when Russian scientists first began boring their mode through the ice above Vostok , they had no theme that the Earth ’s third large body of urine was lurking nearly 4,000 meters beneath their feet . In fact , the research started out as an expedition to recover frosting marrow for use in clime studies .
By the belated nineties , however , scientists had verified that there was , in fact , a monolithic subglacial lake beneath the borehole ; yet care of foul the lake meant that turn through to its surface was entirely out of the head . So in 1998 , less than 200 meters from Vostok ’s waters , drilling stopped entirely .
Those soma are reasonably incredible if you think about them . Take a smell at this diagram , adopt froma great writeup over on Nature News . The figure duplicate as a timeline for the events leading up to the severance in Vostok ’s ice / water edge . As the graphic suggest , the researchers started practise in 1990 . That means that almost 95 % of the vertical trip-up to Vostok through the Antarctic ice sheet was actually completed by 1998 . The hard part was closing the deal — the last couple hundred meters take 14 years .
understand more about the long - drawn summons of drill to Lake Vostok over onNature News .
persona by based on data fromLukin & Bulatvia Nature
AntarcticaGeologyLakeScience
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