Russian Drilling At South Pole Opens New Doors, Says Geosciences Prof
If a team of Russian researchers has successfully penetrated a sub-glacial lake in Antarctica as reported, it would be one of the top scientific achievements of this century, says a Texas A&M University professor who is an expert on Antarctica.
The South Pole Has More Than 300 Lakes Under The Ice
Mahlon “Chuck” Kennicutt II, professor of oceanography and president of and United States delegate to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and who leads several Antarctic science groups, says the Russian efforts to drill 2.5 miles through to Lake Vostok will open new doors for polar research and beyond.
“It will be extremely interesting to see what they find because the water that has pooled under the vast East Antarctic ice sheet has been isolated for potentially millions of years,” Kennicutt explains.
“They could find sedimentary records of climate change that are available nowhere else on Earth. These records of climate change would give us insight into the evolution of the Southern Ocean and the continent of Antarctica, which is estimated to have been ice-covered for 35 million years. It could also tell us important clues about the history of ice flow from the continent to the ocean, giving us critical information for predicting future sea level rise as our planet warms.
“The outbursts of water from sub-glacial lakes have occurred in the past and the freshwater from these lakes may influence weather patterns and climate as they carve out unique features on the surface of Earth.”
There are now more than 300 known sub-glacial lakes in Antarctica, Kennicutt says, and Lake Vostok — about the size of Lake Ontario — is considered the crown jewel of them all as the largest and most mysterious.
“Whatever living organisms are found in these environments have been able to live under extreme conditions, and this could tell us if and how life has evolved in the ocean hundreds of millions of years ago and possibly about other icy worlds in our solar system,” he notes.
“The clues to how Earth may respond to the continuing impact of humans, particularly fossil fuel emissions and related climate change, are housed in the records of past climate change in Antarctica. A view of the past gives us window on our planet’s future.”
Some scientists believe the pristine waters of Lake Vostok may contain oxygen levels far greater than anywhere else on Earth. If true, whatever forms of life that have survived in such an environment will surely be unique, Kennicutt says.
The Russian research team has been drilling in the area for more than three decades and “they clearly want to be the first ever to enter the lake,” Kennicutt adds.
“For them, it is a matter of national pride that they be the first and if this accomplishment is verified, it will be a valued prize by the Russian people.”
Some scientists have compared the conditions of Lake Vostok to other icy worlds in our solar systems such as Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.
“The bottom line is that we don’t know what is in Lake Vostok,” Kennicutt says. “That’s why this is such a great moment and what is found there could change the way we think about life on our planet and how Earth has evolved over the millennia.”
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Media contact: Keith Randall, News & Information Services, at (979) 845-4644 or Chuck Kennicutt at (979) 458-4345
