Scientists drill into mysterious lake buried 1000m under Antarctica
A huge lake buried 1000 metres underneath Antarctica’s ice is about to yield its secrets after scientists drilled through the ice to reach it.
After two days of drilling using a high-pressure hot water drill, the scientists broke through on Sunday – finding a lake “twice the size of Manhattan”.
The scientists will lower a robotic vehicle into the lake to sample its temperature and cleanliness and to look for microbial life.
Al Gagnon (left) and SALSA Marine Techs Michael Tepper-Rasmussen and Jack Greenberg (ctr and right) test the @WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Gravity Corer that will be used to collect 10-ft and 20-ft sediment cores from Mercer Subglacial Lake. #nsfsalsa #Antarctica pic.twitter.com/L12t3Jlxfs
— Salsa Antarctica (@SalsaAntarctica) December 30, 2018
“We don’t know what we’ll find,” said John Priscu, chief scientist for Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA).
“We’re just learning, it’s only the second time that this has been done.”
The Mercer Subglacial Lake was spotted in satellite imagery more than a decade ago – and is believed to be one of 400 lakes hidden beneath Antarctica.
Science Team Drills Into Mercer Subglacial Lake https://t.co/KFmMKrx04v pic.twitter.com/NeUvBZHnNn
— Salsa Antarctica (@SalsaAntarctica) December 28, 2018
The SALSA team wrote, “part of the drilling process involves sampling the drill water to test its cleanliness”.
The team said the water had so far been tested twice, and both showed it was “as clean as filtered water could get”.
The drill water is run through filters that catch 99.9 per cent of bacteria and particles.
