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Cold And Deep: Antarctica's Lake Vostok Has Two Big Neighbors
Science News Online ^
| 2-8-2006
| Sid Perkins
Posted on 02/08/2006 3:52:36 PM PST by blam
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I've been reading for years about different (proposed) ways of drilling into Vostok without contaminating the lake. Nothing agreed on yet.
1
posted on
02/08/2006 3:52:39 PM PST
by
blam
To: RightWhale
Ping. You like this stuff.
2
posted on
02/08/2006 3:53:26 PM PST
by
blam
To: blam
35 million years is a lot longer than I thought.
3
posted on
02/08/2006 3:54:41 PM PST
by
RightWhale
(pas de lieu, Rhone que nous)
To: blam
Drill with 9.1 brine water.
A couple of barrels of salt water ain't gonna do anything to a lack that big, even if you lost circulation.
4
posted on
02/08/2006 3:56:26 PM PST
by
MeanWestTexan
(Many at FR would respond to Christ "Darn right, I'll cast the first stone!")
To: blam
...think Jimmy Hoffa is somewhere down there?
5
posted on
02/08/2006 4:00:53 PM PST
by
Tzimisce
(How Would Mohammed Vote? Hillary for President!)
To: blam
I am not sure I am worried about contaminating the lake.
It might be a bigger problem, if we contaminate us.
6
posted on
02/08/2006 4:01:52 PM PST
by
patton
(Just because you don't understand it, does not mean that it does not exist.)
To: MeanWestTexan
all this talk is making me thirsty.
7
posted on
02/08/2006 4:02:15 PM PST
by
pipecorp
(Let's have a CRUSADE! , the muslims never stopped. a 2010 useless reply odyssey.)
To: blam
I happened to watch the Carpenter remake of The Thing last weekend -- my favorite sci-fi movie, BTW -- and this story has some eerie parallels. Be concerned...
8
posted on
02/08/2006 4:11:12 PM PST
by
WL-law
To: pipecorp
all this talk is making me thirsty. Antarctic stories always leave me cold.
9
posted on
02/08/2006 4:12:33 PM PST
by
Socratic
To: blam
Old punch line: "Yeah, and it's deep too!"
10
posted on
02/08/2006 4:15:10 PM PST
by
llevrok
(Drink your beer, damnit! There are sober people in Africa.)
To: pipecorp
"These pretzels are making me thirsty..."
11
posted on
02/08/2006 4:18:52 PM PST
by
GRRRRR
(Demokrats. Hitliary and the ACLU are the domestic enemy)
To: blam
It would seem that there might be a lot of potential pressure under all that ice. Wouldn't breaching that cause a pretty impressive geyser?
To: Walkingfeather
No:
You:(1) case the hole (metal piping as you go);(2) have what is called a pressure control stack on the surface (blow out preventers and a annular) in the event you become underbalanced; and (3) most importantly, you have a colum of drilling fluid of some kind weighing down the formation (lake, in this instance) . . water being the lightest, to brine (all you'd need here), or even some sort of heavier petroleum based mud.
Yes, I am a drilling engineer.
13
posted on
02/08/2006 4:24:19 PM PST
by
MeanWestTexan
(Many at FR would respond to Christ "Darn right, I'll cast the first stone!")
To: blam
Why are these lakes warm enough to remain unfrozen when everything else in the neighborhood is frozen to the depth of 4km?
14
posted on
02/08/2006 4:25:50 PM PST
by
Capriole
(The Anti-Feminist)
To: blam
Isn't that basin where The Thing's spaceship crashed as shown in the movie?
15
posted on
02/08/2006 4:26:23 PM PST
by
pankot
To: llevrok
"Yeah, and it's deep too!" and the bottom's sandy.
16
posted on
02/08/2006 4:26:27 PM PST
by
MrBambaLaMamba
(Buy 'Allah' brand urinal cakes - If you can't kill the enemy at least you can piss on their god)
To: MeanWestTexan
"...or even some sort of heavier petroleum based mud." Loaded with bacteria, germs and etc.
17
posted on
02/08/2006 4:27:12 PM PST
by
blam
To: WL-law
the Carpenter remake of The Thing last weekend -- my favorite sci-fi movie, BTW Too bad the real author, John W. Campbell Jr., never gets much credit for his original pulp story "Who Goes There?" It was in the great 1930s style of purple prose and bodice-ripping BEMs (Bug-Eyed Monsters) but Lordy I loved 'em!
The 1950s movie version did something revolutionary for the time. It only showed scary glimpses of the alien monster (aka 'Marshall' James Arness) and built suspense until the final confrontation when the Thing was at last revealed.
18
posted on
02/08/2006 4:28:40 PM PST
by
Bernard Marx
(Don't make the mistake of interpreting my Civility as Servility)
To: Capriole
Why are these lakes warm enough to remain unfrozen when everything else in the neighborhood is frozen to the depth of 4km?
Heating from below; areas where the crust is thinner and you've got magma nearer the surface.
To: MeanWestTexan
Use Bentonite with their density-improver Weight-it. at an Sg of 1.6, ought to work pretty well with a column like that!
Pro-mud polymer drilling fluid is fun stuff, too, but you have to run a Ph of 13 to make it really work, and to keep the density up.
However, arent' they just drilling ice? How do you restrain the casing fdrom moving ineither direction? I can't imagine there is much skin friction holding the string.
20
posted on
02/08/2006 4:36:51 PM PST
by
Toby06
(Hindsight alone is not wisdom, and second-guessing is not a strategy)
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