Lake Vostok has never encountered humans. Its been undisturbed for 15 million years, and is completely unknown. It’s a subglacial lake about 4,000 metres beneath the ice sheet in Antarctica. It is in Antarctica, at Vostok, which also has the world's coldest reported temperature, so it's not been easy to get at to say the least.
Although some people think there are some real risks of contamination of this pristine environment, Russian scientists have been drilling 24 hours a day in shifts all summer to try to reach it before the weather means they have to leave in early February .
With only days left they still have about 50 m left to drill.
No-one actually knows what is waiting for them there, so the world holds it breath. It has been isolated from the world by 4 km of ice cap. This ice may have sealed the lake and made it an ecosystem that is completely independent of anything else.
So the Russian scientists are likely to find life forms never seen before.
LinkWill they find any life? If they do, it would almost have to be completely different from most known life forms.
