Posted on 02/05/2012 7:19:42 AM PST by PJ-Comix
A TEAM of Russian scientists has gone quiet as they race against winter to uncover an ancient Antarctic lake.
The group from Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) have been drilling for weeks in an effort to reach isolated Lake Vostok, a vast, dark body of water hidden 4000m below the surface of the continent. Lake Vostok has not been exposed to air in more than 20 million years.
The team's last contact with colleagues in the outside world was six days ago, and scientists from around the globe are unsure of the fate of the mission - and the scientists themselves - as Antarctica's deadly winter draws near.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailytelegraph.com.au ...
I wish they would say how many people are on this team. Is this two guys alone in the cold? They’re probably dead. Is it 10? 17? How many people are we talking about here?
Meanwhile I guesstimating that it's 1000-1200 miles to McMurdo or Casey. Pretty far to travel over questionable terrain.
And then I'm wondering is something potentially deadly WAS released from the lake, bacteria or otherwise, if it would be possible to make it's way to McMurdo or Casey and how long it would take.
Uhhh, doesn't winter start on June 21?
The author is a journalist and therefore unconcerned with facts.
The thing with Kurt Russell is one of the best remakes of all time. He plays the part so good. And the Cast is great. Loved it..
I don't think it is drama for the sake of drama. Fact is planes can't fly in after a certain point due to the drop in temperature. They can't just go there by ground since it is so far away from the other Antarctic stations plus the low temps would make any such trip hazardous. I'm thinking we have to wait for the return of the Arctic summer next December to find out what really happened there.
As others have noted the temp (-2.3C) Isn't bad at all and planes could fly. However when I checked earlier this week at A-Net station I could swear it was -30F and dropping. Of course this station is a good couple of thousand kilometers from Vostok IIRC.
Hmm wonder if there's a Vostok webcam....
“Wouldn’t you love it if FR allowed you to edit posts after you click the Post button?”
Depending on how that was done, you might end up with a lot or replies that didn’t make sense. (Well, Ok, that happens now.)
Folks might have to keep checking the original post to see if it had changed unless there was a change notification mechanism.
I think giant albino cave-penguins must have come boiling up from the deeps...
Freegards, remember to feed your shoggoths!
I think people spend way too much time concentrating on the official date at which winter starts there without recognizing the speed at which it approaches in those latitudes.
My cousin spent a winter in north central Alaska and was amazed at how fast the seasons changed. He said they went from shirtsleeve summer to 6 feet of snow winter in under 6 weeks.
I’m very very old;)
Pens & paper in school. My first job was at an innovative textile company where we actually used manual comptometers, slide rules in accounting and jacquard machines in production.
There’s no telling what happened when/if they broke through. The kind of pressures that were trapped in there would be difficult to deal with and reducing the pressure in there would bring other consequences.
Heck, I was even amazed in northern Minnesota. Hot as could be with huge mosquitoes right up to Labor Day, then the light got that golden fallish tinge, the wind started to blow, the temperature started dropping day by day, the leaves turned and blew off in a matter of weeks and then snow, by October.
Here, we get a cool spell, then “Indian Summer” with daytime temps in the seventies or even eighties, and fall color doesn’t start until late October or early November. Something frozen usually falls a little bit before Christmas, with the first measurable winter precipitation coming between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Some years it doesn’t happen at all, like this year thus far.
WOW! That Condition 1 is truly frightening. You can’t even see a foot into that blizzard. And that video really illustrates why those Russian scientists need to leave Lake Vostok right away.
I have seen that feature abused on other sites that allow it. You post something outrageous, someone else replies, you go back and amend your post to make the replier look like a moron.
You would need to have a fairly narrow window of time to allow a change. To avoid the above trap you just wait until the window elapses before you post.
Russian "scientists" on the move.
There’s a big difference between here in far southern Michigan and up in the UP. Winter comes a good month earlier up there.
This winter is an exceptionally warm one. Its been like Tennessee or something most of the winter. Its in the 40s right now and been that way or warmer through almost the entire winter. Daytime temps are usually in the teens and twenties through January and February. The ice was only marginally safe for fishing for about a week and now the lake is better than half open again.
If this is global warming they’ll play hell convincing us that its bad.
“I’m thinking that the most realistic theory so far presented is that they drilled through to the under the ice lake and the water pressure sent a tower of water up that covered the scientists and froze them like human Popsicles”.
An even more likely theory is that something was disturbed from its 20 million year slumber. Once awakened, its first thought was to satisfying its enormous hunger. Those Russian scientists probably have been consumed, and the Creature From the Deep is again on the prowl.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.