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Life in Extreme Environment Life in deep freeze: Lake Vostok, Antarctica. Readings: Nature, 415, 828-830 Science, 286, 2138-2141 Science, 286, 2141-2144 Science, 286, 2144-2147. Hidden depths: lake Vostok in Antarctica. Surface of Lake Vostok.
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Life in Extreme EnvironmentLife in deep freeze: Lake Vostok, Antarctica Readings: Nature, 415, 828-830 Science, 286, 2138-2141 Science, 286, 2141-2144 Science, 286, 2144-2147
The borehole beneath Vostok station extends into areas of frozen lake water
Time table • 1989: drilling started at Russian Antarctic research station of Vostok to obtain information on past climate history • 1990’s: evidence accumulated that there was a lake beneath the station • 1995: a meeting in UK, decided to stop the drilling before the drilling bits touched the liquid water to contaminate it. • 1998: Drilling halted with the borehole some 120 meters from the lake’s surface
Time table • 1999: Ice cores from 3539-3750 m below analyzed for geochemistry and microbiology • Nov, 2001: The group met in Itlay, and outlined a plan to access lake Vostok in 3-6 years. • Meeting in Shanghai, China, July of 2002, and revised plan will be released. 10 countries will participate
Lake Vostok • 240 km x 50 km • 1200 meters deep of liquid water • Lake bottom covered by sediment of hundreds of meters thick • Temperature is –3oC, but unfrozen • Totally dark • Low nutrient levels • 380 atmosphere pressure • Complete isolation for millions of years
1999 discoveries • Gas content • Electrical conductivity measurement • Crystal size • # of inclusions • Isotopic evidence
Epifluorescence and SEM micrographs of microbes from ice cores
Evidence for microbes in ice cores • Epifluorescence and SEM evidence • Hundreds to thousands of cells per ml • Molecular work • Alpha and beta proteobacteria • Heterotrophy • Incorporation of radiolabeled compounds • LPS concentration • Not culutrable
Energy source • Glacier ice from above • Geothermal energy • Intracontinental rife zone similar to East Africa
Implication • Life in Europa – moon of Jupiter
Further information • http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast10dec99_2.htm • http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~mstuding/vostok.html • ……