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    Putin hails Antarctic lake discovery

    By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV | Associated Press – Fri, Feb 10, 2012

    MOSCOW (AP) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday praised the Russian scientists who have reached a gigantic freshwater lake in Antarctica hidden under more than two miles (3.2 kilometers) of ice, a pristine body of water that may hold life from the distant past.

    On national television, Russia's natural resources minister gave Putin a canister of water from melted ice at the bottom of the boreshaft near the surface of Lake Vostok.

    The footage appeared aimed at showing Russia's scientific prowess and helping Putin's bid to reclaim the presidency in March's election. Putin hailed the discovery of Lake Vostok as a "great event" and said the research team members will receive national awards.

    After more than two decades of drilling, the Russian researchers reached the lake on Sunday at a depth of 12,366 feet (3,769 meters) in a location about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) east of the South Pole.

    Reaching the surface of Lake Vostok, the largest of nearly 400 subglacial lakes in Antarctica, was a major discovery avidly anticipated by scientists around the world.

    The lake is expected to hold living organisms that have been locked in icy darkness for some 20 million years, as well as clues to the search for life elsewhere in the solar system.

    Scientists believe that microbial life may exist in the dark depths of the lake, despite its high pressure and constant cold — conditions similar to those believed to be found under the ice crust on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus.

    American and British teams are drilling to reach their own subglacial Antarctic lakes, but they are smaller and younger than Vostok.

     

    36 comments

    • Allank
      Allank  •  3 mths ago
      yes, drilling a hole in ice is a spectacular achievement
      • jr
        jr 3 mths ago
        Thousands of fishermen do it every day...
      • Max Fubar
        Max Fubar 3 mths ago
        Yeah, buit these are Russians....amazing they were sober enough to find the switch to turn on the drill.
      • Highball
        Highball 3 mths ago
        But 20 years?
    • Obie
      Obie  •  3 mths ago
      I hope that there are no pathogens in that water that
      our immune systems are not up to challenge.
      Let's just hope that Vlad and Sylvio and all of the rest of their kind,
      a month from now, are doing quite well.
    • roofus
      roofus  •  Newark, New Jersey  •  3 mths ago
      I DRINK MILLION YEAR OLD WATER NOW I RULE WORLD! anyone have antacid?
    • buda
      buda  •  Palmer, Alaska  •  3 mths ago
      i drilled a hole in the ice and caught fish!
    • James Bond
      James Bond  •  3 mths ago
      Leave it to the Ruskies to get excited by a frozen lake. I'll be on the beach in Miami.
    • WHITE AFRICAN
      WHITE AFRICAN  •  Cape Town, South Africa  •  3 mths ago
      Get the Mexican drug dealers to dig for you.
    • Highball
      Highball  •  Rockford, Illinois  •  3 mths ago
      How does one go East from the South Pole?
      • poop on you
        poop on you 3 mths ago
        Step 1: Face north (into wind)
        Step 2: Turn right (east)
        Step 3: Walk in circle (head east)
      • DANIEL
        DANIEL 3 mths ago
        at south pole wherever you look is north....if turn right is still north ....u can walk in circle or in squares nothing can be east ofsouth pole because everything is north ofsouth pole ...the whole globe
    • diverd
      diverd  •  Steamboat Springs, Colorado  •  3 mths ago
      Surprised Putin didn't take all the credit and claim he drilled the hole himself with a hand auger.
    • Nathaniel
      Nathaniel  •  3 mths ago
      Who cares about what Putin thinks?
      • lenia
        lenia 3 mths ago
        Most of Russia.
      • idontcare
        idontcare 3 mths ago
        Hitlery cares and scares.
    • Dogg
      Dogg  •  Norfolk, Virginia  •  3 mths ago
      How can you discover something that is already on ancient maps. Its like saying Columbus discovered America when people where already there.I guess they don't get to make that claim. SMH
    • State of Jefferson
      State of Jefferson  •  French Gulch, California  •  3 mths ago
      Make sure to drop in a plastic bag and an empty beer can.
    • Anonymous263
      Anonymous263  •  3 mths ago
      Congratulations to these Russian scientists.

      Meanwhile, the United States must depends on Russia largess to reach manned orbit. And other countries of the world, including China, are forging ahead with their own space programs.

      Elsewhere, as America's roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, decay and collapse, 1 in 4 American children live with hunger and 50% of the population live in poverty.

      Yet even now, Boehner and Republican ideologues push the end middle-class tax and shorten aid to the unemployed -- unless the rich receive the lion's share. Meanwhile, at the behest of wealthy corporations, they fight to deny the reality of global warming, block effective regulation of our financial system, oppose economic stimulus desperately needed, and fight to retain tax advantages for outsources versus fair treatment of American employers.

      America, these ideologues do NOT represent your interests -- their constituency is the sole province of corporations and the rich. Anyone voting Republican in 2012 is in denial about the reality staring them in their face -- and dumb as a stump.
    • Big Johnson
      Big Johnson  •  Canyon Country, California  •  3 mths ago
      a new vodka will follow
    • D. K
      D. K  •  3 mths ago
      Knowing the way the Russians do things and knowing it had political content, this pristine water is probably now contaminated and less likely to be scientifically valuable.
    • riprap
      riprap  •  New York, New York  •  3 mths ago
      Russia hopes this water will make a better vodka.
    • mrizhanskii
      mrizhanskii  •  Oakland, California  •  3 mths ago
      Well, for the FOOLS: the lake was discovered 20 years ago.. What has happened and what Putin hailed was the reaching of the lake Vostok after decades of drilling...

      This is the essence of manipulation and brainwashing - invent the opposition to claim a premise invented by you and then prove them wrong..
    • Roger
      Roger  •  Lenora, Kansas  •  3 mths ago
      two decades to drill to a lake? Really?
    • Advanced
      Advanced  •  3 mths ago
      Great achievement, two decades to drill 2 miles. I do understand the logistics involved in doing so, but damm!
    • Tin Tun
      Tin Tun  •  3 mths ago
      ...Fountain of Youth....so drink it...
    • Craig
      Craig  •  Skandia Twp, Michigan  •  3 mths ago
      Pretty amazing! I just don't care!
     Post a comment
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