Russian Scientists Drilling into "Alien" Antarctic Lake Vostok Fall Silent

Considering this is the opening scene of about 5 horror/sci-fi movies that have or will come out in a 2 year time frame, this seems appropriate.

IT got out!

Now were doomed.

First we have arsenic bacteria that maybe life form, or not?

Next we have 6tons of ice that might be stolen from an ice berg?

Now we have drilled in to Antarctica and the workers might be gone?

I wonder what article POPSCI might post next, that might have facts in it.

My thoughts exactly. They *actually* awoke an ancient monster that claimed them. Just like in "The Thing" or "Alients Vs Predator." Like Toomey said, a lot of horror movies started the same way. In all honesty though, I hope its just equipment issues and they are OK. From other newssites, it sounds like it may be a while before a search team can get out there as winter is setting in.

At the same time, I am kind of hoping their drilling attempts fail. As cool as it would see what is living there, to drill into a lake that hasn't seen light for 20 million years only to "cap off" the bore hole with 65 tons of kersosene makes me think "really?" For people who occasionally comment on my signature at the bottom this is why. A lake that has never seeen humans and as soon as we get it to we do something that could potentially destroy it; all in the name of sciene. If the K1 leaks into it, there will be no cleaning up of it either. FYI the 65 ton number I quoted above actually came from another news article.

Science always asks "can we," but doesn't seem to ask "should we."

Maybe they found out the huge lake wasn't water at all but instead the largest reservoir of oil in the world and enough for all mankind for 10,000 years!

Wouldn't that be something huh?

Maybe they are trying to find out how to claim it ALL as their own?

Would make a good april fools joke huh?

I think it's probably more like Transformers. Megatron is now activated/awake.

Isn't Popsci above sensationalism?
There's probably a storm over the area or maybe their satellite transmitter has broken!

fletch,
You make my point exactly! Thank you!

The Thing

A storm....CAUSED BY THE BREACH OF THE LAKE. Hahaha.

are you kidding popsci is the source of all science related sensationalism! let's all be a little genre savvy here and send in more than just a few guys to clean the place up when we go check things out. maybe have aerial backup or something i don't know.

they died from ancient bacteria, anyone who goes there is going to pick it up and if they return, it will spread like a pandemic.

this is such a bad lead in to a b-movie horror that Edgar Allen Poe is spinning in his grave.

to mars or bust!

Once they broke free and reach the bottom, to all their surprise there was no water but a great vacum. Everyone was sucked below..... shoooooooooooooosh, pop.

..........................................
See life in all its beautiful colors, and
from different perspectives too!

These are some funny comments!

ghost - Swap the lake for a mammoth and you have just described B-movie The Thaw!

It took 2 great wizards 500 years to ice the lake to imprison THE THING for eternity. after 20 million years, it's out and we are all screwed! looks like 2012 WILL be the end of mankind! [shivering in fear]

bs.. )) Day X is 5th february and there are no any problems...

I thought the end of the world was in December. Maybe Popsci can invent... I mean comment on this pressing matter.

fletch,
It is the end of the Mayan calendar cycle. It is not the end. The Mayan calendar is really incrediable if you research it. It is based up a year of 360 days over 5200 years or a total of 187200 days. Now how or why they invented this calendar so long ago is a great mystery. But it works and it works very well. It beginning cycle year was back in 3188 BC.

Many people think of time as a straight line, so they say the world may end at the end of the Mayan calender DEC 2012. But study the Mayas culture and you learn, they life is all about cycles.

So it just an end to one cycle and a beginning to another.
Humans live and adapt through winter, spring, summer and fall fine. We will live and adapt to this new cycle too.

No worries!

..........................................
See life in all its beautiful colors, and
from different perspectives too!

I'm sorry. I forgot that Americans don't get sarcasm.
I was joking about the end of the world thing!

Keep smoking those cigerates, you get your end of the world, soon enough. ;)

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.

Cigarette? That did make me chuckle!

Wouldn't it be crazy cool as they punch through the bottom of the ice, this super bright pulsating laser light blasted out from the drill hole!

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.

An interview on Fox News quoted a professor familiar with the expedition and one concern was a massive pressure release similar to an oil well blow out. Do we not have any satellites in that orbit that could snap a few pictures and see what's going on?

Science always asks "can we," but doesn't seem to ask "should we."

The problem with allot of science is sure its all good but no proper precautions are taken when science is done in some situations, such as this.

Clearly a blow-out of capped gas is going to be a big issue if they hit it! The whole drilling rig originally should have been designed as an remote system from 100m away, chances are they were all in the small confines of the drill area and a blow-out occurred causing a big issue for them..

I hope know-one has died but then again, dodgy Russians... RIP.

Don't scientists know other scientists that control satellites that monitor those areas? Blast Social media for someone with Satellite control..Fire thrusters..zoom..film..transmit..report!

OR.

Fly there in less than 24 hours...pretty sure it doesn't take a Saturn rocket engine to get there. Private Jet + curiosity = winner. I'll go with you and bring vodka!

Ever see the movie "The Thing"?

@Auroria lol
Also, I think we should wait until we can be certain we won't mess up anything down there before drilling... You know, wait for the ability to observe it through the ice. It just kinda feels like dynamiting archaeological sites.
-Spouting a fountain of nonsense since 1995-

Lord Elliot the..... Continue dots....

The reason they wish to drill and find the bacteria is to actually release the bacteria into the environment. There is profit in chaos and with for those in the right places, much will profit. If you listen very carefully, you can hear the management in the drill tents laughing and ringing their hands in circles. " Bra bra bra ha ha ha, yes yes, everything is happening to plan! Bra ha ha ha! "

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.

@prime2011

Who is know-one?
Your nickname is outdated haha

Plain and simple . . . they dropped ATT as their cellular service - too expensive. They'd rather wait out the arrival of T-mobile phones.

As the Russian's finally tap the core bottom and open the path to the trapped fresh water pond, a odd gas seem to come to the surface, Nitrous oxide!!

So the technicians, drillers and such have been rolling about and laughing on the floor for the past few days.

Once the gas finally does vent of, then we may learn what lurks below....... perhaps...

Why did an odd and impossible place for this gas to originate from the fresh water lake below, strange? This gas should never come from below and why?

Since the hole made it way to the bottom, a strange and glowing light shines from the hole. Other strange things seem to be crawling out of the drill hole!

The water life beings from below are talking to each other. Oddly sounds are everywhere. A laser light beams shines across humans. Pieces of human flesh are cut and blood lines cross the floor of the drill camp. Many things are being taken below into the whole. Many more beings are coming of the whole and equipment too.

What will come of the days ahead? What has finally been released from its cold dark prison?!

There seems to be so much activity about and yet a void of human activity too. A mile wide circle now glows under the ice and seems to become brighter as if coming up to the surface.

..........................................
See life in all its beautiful colors, and
from different perspectives too!

its... The Thing...

What if this what if that man i was their what happened is we got to the middle of are estimated drilling depth when we herd a large thunderous noise so we seized drilling and began checking the drill hole for signs of damage or cracking but nothing seemed wrong so we began drilling operations again when all of a sudden the ice began to rumble and a crack was beginning to develop stretching a few hundred kilometers in a diagonal direction from north to south ... are drilling platform witch is a three and a half stories tall buckled in as the foundation collapsed from under it we ran as far as we could and watched as it was consumed into the huge ice sheet the tremors continued well into late evening when they finally stopped we returned to base it was damaged pretty bad but livable are only prob was communication was down so we went back to drilling site or more or less were it used to be now their was a immense chasm spanning a staggering 40 miles in depth i and my crew took reading and measurements on the chasm when we discovered a reading coming from a electron spectrometer i and my crew thought it was odd so we decided to do a decent into the huge chasm to see why we where picking up a reading sadly couldn't get all the way down but we sent a specialized robot down witch was basically a small uav hover device that had a hd and inferred camera and climbed out when it reached the bottom a pre-programmed routine kicked in and we began to get a live feed from below and to are amazement what we thought was a large body of water was a clear fluid like substance covering a huge bright object massive in size so huge we couldn't even estimate based on it approximated size to the camera we where shocked we kept saying this has got to be some kind of natural finominon i myself thought it couldn't be what we all were pretty much thinking so i decide to arrange a deeper decent into the liquid like substance covering the object to gather more data we drop a special device designed for the initial study we came for the lake it to would send live data back to us on the surface so we lowered it down the chasm connected to a quick release from the hover uav when we got back to to mysterious liquid slash object we ejected the device via quick release when it fell in we got a weird reading followed bye a hi pitched echo from the computer speakers we all jumped and we all kinda laughed but then i thought wait this device didnt have a mic so why did we get audio another college of mine must have had the same thought cause we both looked at each other and then at the computer the device we dropped was feeding back data but it was unlike anything we have ever seen we all began to argue with each other when another thunderous noise erupted from the chasm then followed bye a immense earthquake i would measure it around 8.0 massive we all began running when the ground erupted and a massive object rose from the bottom still covered bye this liquid like material it flashed a assortment of ultra violet colors spanning a complex spectrum of oscillating patterns then a burst of light jetted out from the under belly shooting down into the chasm for about a minute then it suddenly seized i was just about to run after seeing that crap i was freaking sure it was gonna kill me and my crew but i stopped looking though the fog of steam i saw ice what im saying is the very chasm that was their all of a sudden was gone the ship hovering above at a complete standstill not a sound coming from it it was still flashing dif ultra violet colors then it suddenly stopped it began emitting this buzzing sound kinda of like electricity running through power lines but ten times louder and within a blink of an eye flashed from sight me and my crew we just stood in absolute shock and astonishment when we tried to look back at the data the computer wouldn't work when we went back to are base all electronics were fried when some techs looked into it they found that the only way to incur that kinda of electronic damage is by being hit bye a strong electro magnetic pulse commonly known as a emp blast i tell you guys only cause you will never believe me and my government doesn't either but it happened it was so freaking crazy

The seeker of knowledge who seeks to reach beyond the stars to go where no mans gone before to see things no man has seen and bring these experiences back for the whole world to hear and see.

TrulyVisionary,
Why did you bother to put a capital W & a T in the beginning and sparsely use the periods. I mean, since you choose not to use punctuation and capitals dude, go nude all the way! ;)

..........................................
See life in all its beautiful colors, and
from different perspectives too!

That was a pretty decent story dude. However, never in my life have I seen such an epic fail in both grammar and spelling!

that was a prity desent story dude however never have i scene such a epic fale in both gramer and speling

The real story, no Alien vs. Predator, no missing scientists: http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/2382-russian-scientists-poised-reach-ice-buried-antarctic-lake-vostok.html

my roomate's aunt makes $83/hr on the laptop. She has been without work for 8 months but last month her pay was $8682 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on this site...Nuttyrich . com

caygill,
You obviously do not work for POPSCI. You offered the REAL story and not any type of sensationalism. COOL!

Your link works fine.
http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/2382-russian-scientists-poised-reach-ice-buried-antarctic-lake-vostok.html

"....At a tiny outpost in the middle of Antarctica, Russian scientists are poised to become the first humans to reach a massive liquid lake that has been cut off from the sunlit world for millennia, and may house uniquely adapted life forms that are new to science.

Researchers are racing against the fast-approaching bitter cold and total darkness of Antarctic winter to complete a drill hole to Lake Vostok, one of the largest lakes on Earth, and the largest of the nearly 400 ice-buried lakes discovered on the frigid continent so far.

The researchers are not lost, nor is there evidence that anything sinister is afoot at Vostok Station, contrary to reports from other news outlets that suggest the scientists are in danger or missing...."

..........................................
See life in all its beautiful colors, and
from different perspectives too!

Surely someone knows, and will tell us, why they're using kerosene to cap the drill hole.....

Pick me, me ME! I want to answer this one! Pick me! MEEEE!

shutterpod,
I have to guesses why they used kerosene as I research its characteristics.

One it floats on top of water. There for it will not mix with the fresh water in the trapped lake.

Second, it has a very low freezing point of - 60 degrees Celsius.

Three, it will keep trapped below any bacteria’s. If the bacteria try to go through kerosene, it will kill them, keeping the safely out of our environment. They can send down the drill with a probe, deep into the fresh water lake. Open the probe and capture some water very deep and send a camera in too. They can look about for swimming creatures and bring back the bacteria’s or creatures swimming about and study them.

Four, if any trapped under water aliens attempt to escape through the drill hole, the workers can set the kerosene on fire! ;)

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.

Well maybe instead of scientists, they are actually werewolves.........from the FUTURE

my roomate's aunt makes $83/hr on the laptop. She has been without work for 8 months but last month her pay was $8682 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on this site...Nuttyrich . com

Bravo, excellent answer :D