Scientists to Breach Buried Antarctic Lake, Untouched for Millions of Years

[Chewbacca]

After two decades of drilling through miles of Antarctic ice, Russian scientists are about to breach an underground lake that has not been exposed to the surface in more than 20 million years. Lake Vostok, as the body of water is called, is part of a chain of more than 200 lakes hidden beneath the ice, some of which were formed when Australia and Antarctica were still connected. Vostok will be the first one of all to be opened when the drill hits water next week.
Scientists believe that there may be life in the lake, as ice removed from the Vostok borehole has been found to contain bacteria. And since the subterranean lakes, kept liquid by heat from the Earth’s core, are similar to those found on moons Enceladus and Europa, scientists are excited to see what such inhabitants might be like. But the Russian team’s somewhat sloppy drilling methods have got a number of people worried about preserving the pristine lake from contamination, as Marc Kaufman reports in a great feature for the Washington Post.

I believe there hasn't been a thread about this yet, and you never hear about it from the news... So I thought this was worth posting.

Russia drilled down through over 3.5 kilometers of ice, and they have collected some samples and it has so far shown no signs of life YET. The lake could reveal clues about the evolution of life and may yield entirely unknown forms of life as the lake is supersaturated with oxygen, making life very possible.

So, what do you think? Will we find any living organisms down there? We have explored about 5 percent of the ocean floor and about a half a percent of the ocean itself. I think it's really interesting.

 

[K-64]

I predict demonic invasion or decepticons

 

[Pharaoh Llandy]

Deadly infectious bacteria.

 

[Lord Burgess1]

A Nazi base.

 

[Haresus]

Zombies.

 

[Mage246]

A lost world filled with living dinosaurs.

 

[AWdeV]

Atlantis. With lots of pederasts frozen to children.

 

[Mage246]

A crashed alien spaceship.

 

[Pharaoh Llandy]

A crashed alien spaceship.

One guess per person!

 

[Almalexia]

Proto-Turks.

 

[Mage246]

A crashed alien spaceship.

One guess per person!

A mysterious buried machine that grants a million guesses retroactively.

 

[rebelsquirrell]

A prehistoric sound producing device  playing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on a infinite loop.

 

[Lord Burgess1]

The source of 'The Bloop'

 

[Sushiman70]

Cthulu.

 

[QuailLover]

There the goes the neighborhood. Guess I have to move...again.

 

[Radalan]

A towel.

 

[ColonicAcid]

I predict demonic invasion

I also predict this, it means huge amount of "fun".
So today I learnt that Adamantine is actually ice.

 

[Úlfheðinn]

A Nazi base.

Zombies.

Nazi Zombies!

 

[Radalan]

So uh, after finding out more apparently these news were first presented in February.
Have they actually Breached it yet?

 

[Rujasu]

Yes but the news will arrive once they've found the bodies. Or what's left of them, anyway.