Ocean
The Living Force
Dateline: year 2001, March, and things are rumbling in the Antarctic. Lake Vostok, largest of Antarctica’s subglacial lakes, began exhibiting strange symptoms readily apparent to the scientific team at McMurdo Station: wild magnetic swings out of the blue, strange samples of heretofore unknown bacterial life. And then things started getting really weird…
From this report on the old Cyberspaceorbit site: “Approximately 300 miles from the South Pole there is a lake, a very large lake. It is Lake Vostok. It is also located over 3/4 mile beneath the Continental Ice Sheet. The best photos of Lk Vostok are from space, where the outline is clearly visible. Current ice-penetrating radar studies indicate that the water is up to 2000 ft deep in places, and has an over-arching dome up to 1/2 mile high. Estimates for filtered light at the lake surface indicate something like "continuous first morning light" during Antarctica's summer months. Thermograph imaging proposes an amazing 50-degree average water temperature with "hot spots" near 65 degrees. This can only be attributed to subsurface geothermal heat sources. At 300 miles long, and 50 miles wide, the encapsulated atmosphere should have the ability to cleanse itself through interaction with the lake, and possibly... plant life.
Also proposed as a possible route for atmospheric interaction with the lake's environment are what are being labeled "geothermal boils". These are thousands of bubbles in the ice sheet located in the some 200 sq. miles of "ice dunes" discovered by the late Russian scientist Ivan Toskovoi who was stationed at Vostok research base until his disappearance in March 2000. The surveyed bubbles range from a few to several hundred feet in diameter.
Quite possibly just as exciting as all of the data related so far, is the discovery through Magnetic Imaging that there is an extremely powerful source of magnetic energy located at the North end of the lake's shoreline. As of this writing, no one has suggested an explanation for the magnetic "anomaly.”
As recently as February 2000, at least two international teams were planning separate probes of the lake. Both consisted of fairly similar robotic sensors that would have been lowered through shafts (to be drilled). The team based at Cambridge University, London were sponsored by the UK and US governments, and backed by NASA technology. For reasons not clear, both programs have been shelved indefinitely, with NASA going so far as to deny any involvement, and both governments citing "environmental concerns". An independent source that visited Norway's research base some 150 miles to the East stated that a large amount of new equipment and personnel have been arriving at Russia's Vostok Station over the last six months. This is interesting considering Russia's current financial situation.
A final note is a verified dispatch out of Casey Station(AU). The pair of women adventurers who were attempting to ski across the continent last month, and were extracted by plane during the last leg of their trip, did NOT request the intervention. Over the protests of the Australian crew at Casey, the two were airlifted via an extraordinary 48 hour flight by a USN Special Forces team out of American Samoa. According to the dispatch the women were insistent on reporting something unusual they had seen. The latest news reports have the pair resting in "seclusion.”
And this: “SPACE MAPPING MISSION OF ANTARCTICA ABORTED DUE TO NSA OVER-RIDE
In a brief announcement today, NASA and the JPL terminated all further study of Lake Vostok in S. Antarctica. In an apparent slip of confidentiality, spokeswoman Debra Shingteller alluded to "National Security Issues" allowing the NSA to assume full control of what had been an International effort to explore a huge, under-ice lake near the Russian Vostok research station. Ms. Shingteller was immediately led away from the podium, and an aid responded to the many further questions with the same answer: "the project has been halted due to environmental issues", and that no further releases were pending. The large crowd of press corp. were left clamoring as the officials left the stage. Ms. Shingteller has not responded to repeated attempts at contact.”
All from this archived site with much more at the bump: (pay particular attention to the pics of “weird bacteria” at the top) NSA OVER-RIDE
NSF - OLPA - PR 99-72: Bacteria May Thrive in Antarctic Lake: Holds Implications for Search for Life in the Solar System
Let’s remember thriving at cold temps here, perhaps the native habitat?
