The Mystery of Subglacial Lake Vostok
There are incredible places on our planet, where the charm of their uniqueness coexists with mystery . One of these is certainly the most anomalous lake there is : it is not like all lakes, with a more or less large expanse of fresh water on whose surface the surrounding landscape is reflected. And it cannot even be visited, because it is located at almost 4 thousand meters deep .
It is called Lake Vostok and is the largest of the 70 subglacial lakes that are found under the Antarctic ice cap, in the depths of the Earth, under layers of ice sedimented for millions of years. The hand of man has managed to graze it, but many enigmas and anomalies remain regarding it, so much so that it is one of the most mysterious places in the world, and which could reveal new information on the history of life on Earth.
Where is Lake Vostok located?Antarctica is an immensely fascinating slice of the world, not only on the surface, but also underground, beneath the ice sedimented over millions of years, where there is a hidden world full of wonders and mysteries that still remains safe, sheltered from the hand of man.
Lake Vostok, in particular, is located near the Russian Vostok base in East Antarctica , more precisely in the Australian Antarctic Territory (AAT), which is the part claimed by Australia, even though according to the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, Antarctica does not belong to any country.
The Discovery of Lake VostokIt is considered the most intact and ancient in the world : millions of years ago it was a lake like all the others, on the surface, but then the South Pole formed and it remained sealed for the rest of its existence under a shield of ice 3,768 meters deep.
It was first discovered by Russian geographer Andrei Kapitsa between 1959 and 1964 and confirmed in the following years thanks to increasingly precise radar measurements. In 1996 its exact size was identified: 250 kilometers in length and about 50 in width , consisting of two distinct basins separated by a ridge. But how can it still be liquid, under all those layers of ice? It is because of its average temperature of −3 °C , higher than the melting point of ice at the pressure at which the lake is found, and because of its greater exposure to geothermal heat .
In 2012, there was a turning point: thanks to drilling work, Russian and British researchers were able to go deep down, until they reached the lake water to sample it. In 2013, the presence of unknown bacteria was detected inside Lake Vostok, but their exact nature is still shrouded in mystery.
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We said it, Lake Vostok is not like all the others. What makes it unique is first of all the fascinating possibility that down there, under 4 km of ice, there could be life. But what kind? According to the latest studies, traces of DNA have been detected that can be traced back to evolved marine organisms that could inhabit the lake with a unique ability to survive in extreme conditions . Any organism discovered in the depths of Lake Vostok, in fact, could represent totally unknown life forms that have adapted to survive in conditions that are unthinkable on the surface of the Earth .
Why? The subglacial lake basin of Vostok is supersaturated with oxygen and nitrogen , with concentrations 50 times higher than in typical surface freshwater lakes. This is another of the anomalies that contributes to its mystery. It is also thought that conditions in Lake Vostok may be similar to those on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus .
Exploring this surreal, million-year-old microenvironment represents a unique opportunity to better understand our world, but also the evolution of life in potentially extreme conditions on planets far from our own.
