The Lost World of Lake Vida
A lake hidden beneath 19 meters of ice and gravel has been
found near the bottom of the world that might contain an
ecosystem completely separate from our own.
In a modern version of
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic book
Lost World, NASA funded scientists are now
plotting a mission to drill down into the lake and remove a
sample of water from the lake for analysis.
Lake Vida, buried under Antarctic
ice for over 2,500 years, is liquid only because of a high
salt content that results from
salt being expelled from water above as it turns to ice.
Previously, scientists drilled to within a few meters
of the lake and indeed found frozen
microbes.
Their existence bolsters speculation that similar
microorganisms could be
found in frozen brine beneath the surface of
Mars.
If living organisms are found in
Lake Vida, they may give an indication that
life might even still exist under similar
frozen ice-sheets, such as under the larger
Lake Vostok, parts of Mars, and even moons of
Jupiter such as
Europa.
Pictured above, a robot meteorological station continues to
monitor surface conditions over the ice-sealed lake.