Two and a half miles beneath the surface of Antarctica’s central Eastern ice sheet is a body of water 160 miles by 30 miles across known as Lake Vostok, after the Vostok research station above it, built by the former Soviet Union in 1957 and now operated by Russia.
Even by Antarctic standards it’s a brutal place, with the dubious honor of holding the record for the lowest measured temperature anywhere on the planet, a mind-if-not-body numbing -129 F or -89 C. Performing any kind of mechanical or scientific work in this environment is an immense challenge.
For the past 14 years a hole has been gradually drilled down from this location into the ancient layers of ice. Each short summer season allowing for a little more progress. Hints that there could be a vast sub-surface body of water arose in the 1950′s and 60′s. Ground penetrating radar later confirmed these suggestions – and Lake Vostok, with 1,300 cubic miles liquid water, was revealed some 2.5 miles below the ice (although only 500 meters below planetary sea-level).
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