12 Facts About Lake Vostok

Lake Vostok is the largest of Antarctica's almost 400 known subglacial lakes.

The existence of a subglacial lake in the Vostok region was first suggested by Russian geographer Andrey Kapitsa based on seismic soundings made during the Soviet Antarctic Expeditions in 1959 and 1964 to measure the thickness of the ice sheet.

Lake Vostok theorized that the tremendous pressure exerted by the cumulative mass of thousands of vertical meters of ice could decrease the melting point at the lowest portions of the ice sheet to the point where the ice would become liquid water.

Russian geographer Andrey Kapitsa used seismic soundings in the region of Lake Vostok Station made during the Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1959 and 1964 to measure the thickness of the ice sheet.

Lake Vostok basin is a small tectonic feature within the overall setting of a several-hundred-kilometer-wide continental collision zone between the Gamburtsev Mountain Range, a subglacial mountain range and the Dome C region.

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Lake Vostok water is estimated to have been sealed off under the thick ice sheet about 15 million years ago.

Lake Vostok is an oligotrophic extreme environment, one that is expected to be supersaturated with nitrogen and oxygen, measuring 2.

The sheer weight and pressure around 345 bars of the continental ice cap on top of Lake Vostok is estimated to contribute to the high gas concentration.

Any confirmation of life in Lake Vostok could strengthen the prospect for the presence of life on icy moons.

Researchers working at Lake Vostok Station produced one of the world's longest ice cores in 1998.

Lake Vostok says that it is very probable that the samples are heavily contaminated with tissue and microbes from the outside world.

In January 2015, the Russian press stated that Russian scientists have made a new "clean" borehole into Lake Vostok using a special 50-kilogram probe that collected about 1 liter of water not adulterated by the antifreezing fluid.