Two Large Lakes Discovered Under Antarctic Ice

dr. what · Post by **dr. what** » 2006-01-26 11:24am

Antarctica has at least 145 small lakes buried under its ice and one large one called Vostok. Now scientists have found the second and third largest known bodies of subsurface liquid water there.

Exotic ecosystems frozen in time may thrive in the lakes, untouched for 35 million years, scientists said.

Vostok has a surface area of 5,400 square miles. One of the newfound lakes measures 770 square miles in size, or roughly the size of Rhode Island. The other is about 620 square miles.

Both sit under more than 2 miles of ice and are about a half-mile deep based on observed differences in gravity.

"Over the lakes, the pull of gravity is much weaker, so we know there must be a big hole down there," said Robin Bell, a geophysicist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

The largest of the two is named 90ºE for its location. The other is called Sovetskaya Lake.

The discoveries will be detailed in the February issue of the journal Geophysical Review Letters.

Bell and Michael Studinger combined data from ice-penetrating radar, gravity surveys, satellite images, laser altimetry and records of a Soviet Antarctic Expedition that unknowingly traversed the lakes in 1958-1959.

The shorelines of the lakes appeared in satellite images as perturbations in the surface. Also, the ice basically floats on the lakes and has slight depressions visible in radar images.

The combination of heat from below and a thick layer of insulating ice above keeps the water temperature at the top of both lakes at a balmy 28.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the researchers say, despite outdoor temperatures that can drop to –112 in winter.

The lakes are bounded by faults, Bell said, and the evidence suggests there is circulation and that they receive flows of nutrients that could support unique ecosystems.

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2006-01-26 11:31am

Let me be the first to make the reference:

They've found the last lair of the Elder Thing!

"I, for one, Welcome our Cthonic Overlords."

Post by **Edi** » 2006-01-26 11:43am

Majin Gojira wrote:Let me be the first to make the reference:

They've found the last lair of the Elder Thing!

"I, for one, Welcome our Cthonic Overlords."

Can we stop with this fucking stupid "I for one welcome our <insert whatever> overlords!" bullshit already? It's nothing but spam 99% of the time and very often also derails the thread in question to irrelevant chatter about the "overlords" and ends up with a thread hijack.

Edi

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2006-01-26 11:51am

Appologies, but you must admit, if there are multi-cellular life forms in that dark world (I doubt it, but ya never know), it's be something that Lovecraft would be proud of, and I decided to joke with it.

Guardsman Bass · Post by **Guardsman Bass** » 2006-01-26 12:03pm

This is always interesting. Especially the plant life, in my opinion; take Lake Vostok, for example. The lake is covered with a sheet of ice nearly 3/4 of a mile deep, yet somehow, there is successful photosynthesis through the ice.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2006-01-26 12:11pm

IIRC, there are several species of fish that would have little trouble surviving in 28*F water or in lightless conditions. It's just a matter of food. The main problem would be finding plant/algae/plankton living there, without photosynthesis to feed on.

Akhlut · Post by **Akhlut** » 2006-01-26 01:40pm

LadyTevar wrote:IIRC, there are several species of fish that would have little trouble surviving in 28*F water or in lightless conditions. It's just a matter of food. The main problem would be finding plant/algae/plankton living there, without photosynthesis to feed on.

It is near a fault line, however, so there might be something like a deep-sea vent down there supplying heat and nutrients, so there could be chemosynthesizing organisms down there.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-01-26 02:07pm

If the lake is just under the ice, it would be thousands of metres away from any vents, if I'm correct.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2006-01-26 02:08pm

Majin Gojira wrote:Appologies, but you must admit, if there are multi-cellular life forms in that dark world (I doubt it, but ya never know), it's be something that Lovecraft would be proud of, and I decided to joke with it.

There's almost certainly multicellular life. The lakes have only been capped off for 35 million years, so there's probably all kinds of archaea organisms down there.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-01-30 08:12am

Wait, Archaea can be multicellular?

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2006-01-30 09:41am

wolveraptor wrote:Wait, Archaea can be multicellular?

I think he's gotten his terminology mixed up. Archaea is certainly not multicellular. However, as he correctly pointed out, the lakes have only been capped off for 35 million years. Antarctica began cooling between 52-36 million years ago, so it's concievable these lakes could have been the last refuge for proper multicellular life that lived in Antarctic lakes back when the continent was temperate, or at least, just arctic tundra, and not buried under a couple miles of ice. Now, what would be interesting would be to see if any multicellular life survived, and what adaptations can be found in any currently living species in the lakes.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2006-01-30 02:01pm

GrandMasterTerwynn wrote:
wolveraptor wrote:Wait, Archaea can be multicellular?
I think he's gotten his terminology mixed up. Archaea is certainly not multicellular. However, as he correctly pointed out, the lakes have only been capped off for 35 million years. Antarctica began cooling between 52-36 million years ago, so it's concievable these lakes could have been the last refuge for proper multicellular life that lived in Antarctic lakes back when the continent was temperate, or at least, just arctic tundra, and not buried under a couple miles of ice. Now, what would be interesting would be to see if any multicellular life survived, and what adaptations can be found in any currently living species in the lakes.

Yes, I was mistaken. Thanks for clarifying, but I'm looking forward to seeing all the weird chemotrophs and thermophiles we'll find.

Qwerty 42 · Post by **Qwerty 42** » 2006-01-30 03:36pm

yep, it'll be interesting to see what evolution did to the creatures down there.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-01-30 03:41pm

Photosynthesis via infra-red is only a newly discovered trait, but it is vital to those ecosystems cut off from the rest of the world. I'm eager to find out what has evolved down there.

Chewie probably referred to protists with the multicellular comment. Archaebacteria and eubacteria are only ever unicellular.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2006-01-30 05:18pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Photosynthesis via infra-red is only a newly discovered trait, but it is vital to those ecosystems cut off from the rest of the world. I'm eager to find out what has evolved down there.

Chewie probably referred to protists with the multicellular comment. Archaebacteria and eubacteria are only ever unicellular.

Thank you. Evolutionary Biology was a class I slept through many years ago.