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Russia’s Expedition Drills to Antarctic Relict Lake
Russia’s scientists have suspended drilling a hole over the Vostok subglacial lake in Antarctica, RIA Novosti reported with reference to Sergey Balyasnikov, deputy director at Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute.
The borer reached monocrystal ice formed at high pressure with the size of the crystals exceeding 1.5 meters, Balyasnikov specified.
“As a result, the drilling drastically slowed down and stopped after a while. The boring head was pressed in the ice. It was necessary to extract and repair the borer,” the scientist said.
The tool was extracted from the hole of 3,658 meters on February 7. “The operation was completed successfully,” Balyasnikov said.
The drilling will resume once the equipment is repaired, tested and adjusted. Penetration into the lake will be the concern of the next expedition slated for 2007 to 2008.
Covered by the ice of four kilometers, the Vostok Relict Lake is a unique ecology system isolated from the Earth atmosphere and the surface biosphere for millions of years.
Studying the lake named in honor of an Antarctic station began in 1995. The drilling was suspended in 1998, when the hole depth reached 3,623 meters. At that time, the world community called on Russia to shelf penetrating in the lake’s water till developing the technology to minimize the possible pollution of relict water. The drilling resumed only in December of 2005.
www.kommersant.com
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