What is significant about Lake Vostok in Antarctica?
Located approximately 2.5 miles (4 km) beneath Russia’s Vostok Station on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), the water body is also the largest subglacial lake known. Most scientists believe that the lake is the product of volcanic activity that melted a portion of the ice overhead.
What was discovered under the ice at Vostok in 1996?
Gigantic freshwater lake found unter 4 km of ice Almost 4 km beneath the East-Antarctic ice sheet, Lake Vostok, a vast freshwater lake was discovered 1996 by using ice-penetrating radar and artificial seismic waves.
Is there fish in Lake Vostok?
Lake Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest and deepest subsurface lake, might contain thousands of different kinds of tiny organisms — and perhaps bigger fish as well, researchers report.
How deep is the water around Antarctica?
The Southern Ocean’s greatest depth of 7,236 m (23,740 ft) occurs at the southern end of the South Sandwich Trench, at 60°00’S, 024°W. The Antarctic continental shelf appears generally narrow and unusually deep, its edge lying at depths up to 800 m (2,600 ft), compared to a global mean of 133 m (436 ft).
Who lives under the ice in Antarctica?
Video shows discovery of sea-sponges living nearly half a mile beneath Antarctica ice. The geologists were more than 150 miles from the open ocean when they bored a hole through the 3,000-foot-thick ice with a hot-water drill and lowered a coring device and a video camera into the dark seawater below it.
Why isn’t all the water in Antarctica frozen?
As you begin adding salt to the water, the freezing point of the water goes down. The more salt you add, the lower the temperature at which the water will freeze. Antarctica has some of the saltiest ocean water on Earth. When these tiny crystal structures form, they form only out of water without salt in it.