14 DAY TRIAL // This represents one of the "last unexplored places on Earth": a unique system of lakes buried thousands of meters under the Antarctic ice sheet.
The recently discovered lakes have been cut off from the outside world for millions of years. Now, scientists are preoccupied to "ensure that the environmental management of subglacial environments is held to the highest standards."
Before any efforts are made to take any samples, much more detailed surveys need to be made to asses the subglacial aquatic network which could be protected by a treaty. A survey would also reveal certain features more useful for scientific research and presenting less of a risk of widespread contamination of a subglacial "watershed."
Ice-penetrating radar and other approaches have detected over 145 lakes under the ice of the Antarctica, including one under the South Pole itself. The largest is Lake Vostok, which covers a surface area of about 14,000 square kilometers (5,400 square miles), about the size of Lake Ontario in North America.
The lakes are accompanied by shallow swamps the size of several city blocks and layers of soils and broken rock. The vast watersheds are connected by rivers and streams that flow freely beneath the ice sheet, which in some points is over 2 miles (3 km) thick.
Because this system has been sealed from free exchange with the atmosphere for millions of years, it could harbor unique microbial communities that have evolved in isolation for millions of years in extremes of cold and darkness.
The sediments at the bottom of the lakes could have recorded evidence of past climate on the continent over millions of years and even before Antarctica was covered by ice (40 million years ago). This system of aquatic features seems to be interconnected in many ways, requiring that great care be taken not to accidentally contaminate an entire watershed.
Drilling at Lake Vostok has reached 120 m (400 ft) above the place where ice and lake water meet, but none of the Antarctic lakes has yet been reached. Still, Russia intents to drill into Lake Vostok during the 2007-2008 Antarctic research season.