More than twenty years after drilling first started, Russian Scientists have struck water in the Antarctic.
The news is the culmination of a scientific project which could hold clues that will be invaluable to cosmologists. The team, headed by Russia's s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute celebrated the final breach of the pre-Ice Age lake, named Lake Vostoc, after drilling first began in 1989.
Rather than drilling for oil, the team set out to strike water knowing that the lake is almost certain to contain microscopic life forms similar to those that may exist on other ice-bound planets in our Solar System including Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
The lake is more than 3.8km below the surface of the Antarctic - where temperatures can reach as low as -89°C - and is similar in size to Canada's Lake Ontario with a span on 250km long and a maximum width of 50km. Because of its pristine condition, the contents of the lake water will provide scientists - including the US' NASA experts - not only with information vital to understanding our own planet's climatic conditions, but also in replicating the climates on other planets.
The scientists plan to collect samples of the water and sediment from the lake, which is kept warm by geothermal energy from the earth's core, using an underwater robot. However, this part of the project is yet to be ratified by the Antarctic Treaty organisation.