At the end of the last century, in Antarctica, near the Russian Vostok station, the largest subglacial Lake Vostok was discovered with an area of 20,000 km² and a water volume of 5400 thousand km³.
Scientists all over the world rank this discovery among the largest geographical discoveries of the 20th century. A surprise for everyone was an ice sheet, four thousand meters thick, which hid the ice-free lake so far. In total, more than 140 subglacial lakes have been discovered in the Antarctic. But the East is the largest.
Logically, it would seem that you can find a secret on the sixth continent, where everything is covered with an ice shell of 4000 meters thick, and the average temperature is -50 ° Celsius. There is practically no vegetation here, and the animal world is a few species of penguins, birds and pinnipeds, and only on the coast where it is somewhat warmer. Well, on the pole and near it is a solid icy silence. And still…
The central part of Antarctica, 480 kilometers from the South Pole, the Vostok Antarctic Station is a place that can rightfully be called a cold pole. In 1983, the temperature in this place of the globe reached an absolute record minus 89.6 ° Celsius. The record lasted 30 years. Only in 2013, the temperature of minus 91.2 degrees Celsius was recorded at the Japanese Antarctic Dome Fuji station.
Well come on with them, with the Japanese, let them rejoice. Station “Vostok” is known not only for this. If there is always some kind of living creature in ordinary life all over the globe, on land and under water, even if it is some tiny insects, insects or even bacteria, then there is nothing alive, even microorganisms, because the average temperature here is -50 ° WITH. Water at the station is obtained from the surrounding snow. There are no salts or minerals in this water; it is as if naturally distilled. It is not surprising that a person first appeared here, at first constantly thirsty.
But it turns out to be exactly here in this place, just below the arctic station at a depth of almost 4000 thousand meters, under the shell of ice, there is a lake with ice-free water, and it is possible that it has life. Unbelievable, but it is a fact. How can this be? Moreover, the lake is huge, about 250 kilometers long and 50 wide, and given its depth of 1.2 kilometers, this is one of the largest fresh water reserves on the planet.
The existence of this lake was predicted by academician A.P. Kapitsa back in 1955-1957, and seismic sounding of the glacier under Vostok station, conducted under his leadership in 1959 and 1964, confirmed that the lake exists and its thickness in this place is about 700 meters . In the 1970s, drilling began at Vostok station to obtain ice samples from the depths of the glacier. The project involved a scientist from the Soviet Union, from the USA, France and Great Britain (also, check Interesting facts about Marseille). At a certain depth, it was noticed that the chemical and isotopic composition of ice, as well as its crystallographic structure, changed dramatically. This indicated that the ice mined from the depths is not glacial layers, but the frozen water of the lake. For many reasons, further collaborative research was discontinued, and each country continued to research independently, keeping all this a secret.
Soviet polar explorers began drilling a deep well capable of reaching the surface of the lake in 1990. In 1996, a depth of 3539 m was reached. The ice samples obtained from this depth confirmed that it was frozen water of the ice-covered lake. Fearing to disturb the ecological system of the lake, in 1998, drilling was suspended, according to calculations, about 200 meters remained to the surface of the lake.
The United States initially participated in research conducted by the Soviet Union, but then launched its own project, first international, and then the entire US leadership took the US National Security Administration and all work was classified. The reason for this was not explained, but in 2000, one of the leaders of NASA said that research was stopped to ensure environmental safety of the environment. There are a lot of versions of such strict secrecy. Up to the fact that the lake can be a secret object created by the Wehrmacht during the Second World War or the presence of an alien ship there. Of course, more like a fairy tale, but, nevertheless, everything that has been done and is being done by the Americans remains a mystery.
