I saw this, too, and was excited that we were actually going to get some pictures... But then I thought about it and realized that there won't be any pictures. They'll just run a tube down there and suck up some water and look for microbes or something. I wanted a photo of a 20-million-year-old arctic dinosaur or something.

>>4338619

I remember learning about Lake Vostok in a biology class years ago, the whole reason they didn't drill was in fear of contaminating the water and ancient life with human pollution.
I don't see why this fear is suddenly not enough justification, are they using electric sterilized drills or something?

>>4338636
>I don't see why this fear is suddenly not enough justification
Because they're russian.
And they drill with kerosene... Yeah, they're russian.

>>your face when lake vostok turns out to be a hyperoxic environment that nothing can survive in.

in b4 the russians fuck up Lake Vostok with their kerosene

>>4338631
I don't think there could be anything higher than a fish down there

I mean, the lake is fucking huge, but at the same time is not THAT huge

for a closed environment, I don't see how some big species could thrive being so locked up, so the most logical sense is evolving towards a smaller size and less consumption of resources due to being fucking trapped in a lake.

>>4338642
>>4338646

>drill to find potential life which could be critically important to climate change
>drill with kerosene
>kerosene will most likely harm the ancient life
>....wait where the fuck is the profit??!!!....

>>4338636
well lake vostok could be at positive pressure, meaning it will inherently leak out and prevent anything from getting in.

>>4338631
>>4338648


Hey retards, obviously only tiny lifeforms are down there, the pressure is so immense ice turns to water (hurr water is denser than ice).

>>4338646
niggah please, lake vostok could have methane clathrate deposits, any organisms living there will most likely have no problem with hydrocarbons like kerosene.

The bigger issue, is whatever lifeforms the drill bit brings down with it. The lifeforms in the lake probably haven't seen them in thousands of years.

>>4338654
What happens if we drill it, water explodes outwards, the water underneath suddenly turns to ice because it's not under as much pressure, and kill off all the organisms that way?

>>4338654
>>pressure so immense water turns to ice
THEN HOW IS THERE WATER DOWN THERE?

Also, nutrient starved environment.

>>4338660
thats a possible scenario
it would be like a super-cooled beer
its below 0 degrees, yet liquid
you disturb it, ice!

>>4338662
Re-read it. It says pressure so immense ice turns into water, not the other way around.

>>4338660

If the life isn't killed in super cooled water which is a higher pressure than ice, what makes you think ice would kill them?
Seriously, how ignorant are you of microbial life in Antarctica (but also the world), many local (and global) lifeforms can be frozen and then be perfectly fine when unfrozen.

>>4338662
I think he meant ice turns to water
the pressure is so big, ice is crushed back to water, and ice can't form because it would take a bigger volume.

>>4338660
What happens if we drill it, and the waters under such intense pressure it all shoots up out of the borehole and into the atmosphere! The antartic climate could be fucked up from the sudden impulse of water vapor!

>>4338668
but at least water means being able to move, as slow as it may be. ice is being trapped to die.

>>4338668
I dunno. Ice crystals puncturing the cell walls?

Honestly, yes I am ignorant of antarctic life.

>>4338662

Mfw this guy cannot read

So why didn't they talk for an entire week?

There is no telling what we might find, and conditions are analogous to those on Europa. If there's life in Lake Vostok, it bodes well for the prospect of life in Europa's ocean.

>>4338680
Does Europa's lakes have water? I thought they were something else.

>>4338673
>Ice crystals puncturing the cell walls?

That is a decent answer, that is how larger life (such as fish) can die even when they survive in supercooled water.
However smaller lifeforms don't generally have this problem as the ice crystals are too large and or they have evolved methods of survival.

>>4338672
The pressure down there isn't attributed to being airtight, its the weight of the ice, so a hole will only make the slightest difference (i.e. the ice removed).
The weight of the ice gets so immense down the bottom, the ice becomes water, as i already explained, water is denser than ice.

>>4338687
water is indeed weird, I think there is no other material that at a solid state is less dense that at a liquid state.

>>4338619
>after 30 years, researchers have finally broken through
>the main inspiration for the project died just six months before the contact with the lake's surface.

Manly, manly tears.

>>4338694

Not near as weird as non-Newtonian fluids

>>4338701
but water importance goes beyond that of non-newtonian fluids (yes they do have WEIRD physics) but water is like carbon, it works for so much fucking stuff

There surely is life based on other things rather than carbon and water, but things just seem to work so perfect that way.. maybe Silicon but it must not be as abundant as Carbon

>>4338711
well, correct myself
Silicon is indeed abundant (ratio on earth seems to be 925:1 to carbon) but its still a weak candidate of alternate biochemistries, so if life in earth is carbon based instead of silicon despite its staggering amount, it must mean that carbon must be the way to hold up a compound large enough to have biological complexity.

"The drilling technique employed thus far by the Russians has involved the use of freon and kerosene to lubricate the borehole and prevent it from collapsing and freezing over; 60 tons of these chemicals have been used thus far on the ice above Lake Vostok.[13] Other countries, particularly the United States and Britain, have failed to persuade the Russians not to pierce to the lake until cleaner technologies such as hot-water drilling are available.[47] Though the Russians claim to have improved their operations, they continue to use the same borehole, which has already been filled with kerosene.[48] According to the head of Russian Antarctic Expeditions, Valery Lukin, the new equipment had been developed by researchers at the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute that would ensure the lake remains uncontaminated upon intrusion.[1][49] Lukin has repeatedly reassured other signatory nations to the Antarctic Treaty System that the drilling will not affect the lake. He argues that on breakthrough, water will rush up the borehole, freeze, and seal the chemical fluids out."

Fucking impatient Russian dogs

>>4338679
They were too busy being infested by the aliens.

Haven't you ever seen movies?

>>4338721
If they fuck this up, millions of years of study could be lost. Argh, that makes me so mad.

>>4338740
>[citation needed]
don't worry bro, i have you covered.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/lake-vostoks-ancient-water-could-harbour-aliens-hitler/st
ory-fn5fsgyc-1226264499986

Are the hamsters in hampture being trained to explore this lake?

>>4338915
> A Nazi archive in the ice

Seriously? Though it would be cool, shouldn't be too hard to find with ground penetrating radar either.

At the time, his shrieks were confined to the repetition of a single, mad word of all too obvious source:
"Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!"

Ywaq maq oou; ywaq maq ssaggh. Ywaq ma shg'fhn.

>>4338670

Ice volcano

Caldera the size of Lake Ontario

This is going to be the show of the century.

the russians have doomed us all

is russia considered a first world country?

>mfw the ruskys discovering something

>>4338981
in a word: no

russia is the second world n00b, first world is the west 2nd world is russia 3rd world africa etc.

"Anon, we want you to ride along on a manned trip down to the bottom of Lake Vostok. A large object that is obviously artificial but difficult to resolve any detail on via sonar resides there. The only sub we can smuggle to the site covertly without arousing suspicion is the homemade sub Idabel, with a rated depth that exactly matches the depth of lake Vostok but which has never actually been tested to that depth. It's your mission to accept or refuse."

You know realise that the Scharwtzelt of Strange journey is what the result of the drilling

That or we summoned a ice or toxic Balrog

"The object appears to be a collection of spheres connected by cylinders. Speculation is that they are pressure vessels. There is a large hole in one of them, large enough to pilot the Idabel into. It may or may not be an airlock. An attempt to pilot an ROV into it resulted in a door closing behind the ROV, severing the power/video cable. That's why we're sending a sub. We'd understand if you refused this mission but we're hoping you won't."

>>4339009

>That or we summoned a ice or toxic Balrog

Why not both ?

"Should you accept this mission, you will be sealed within the Idabel with several days' supply of food as well as a composting marine toilet. You will sleep there, live there, and one day of that period will be spent simply sterilizing the submersible exterior to ensure that it does not contaminate the lake.

In the event that it proves to be incapable of withstanding the pressures claimed by it's inventor, and the viewing dome begins to crack, you have been issued a cyanide pill so that you can choose a death just as swift but vastly less painful than catastrophic hull failure."

>>4339011
because there's no such thing as a "toxic or ice balrog"?

>>4339011

oh yeah I know, it's a ice TentacrueL actually

>>4339013

I mean that we have 3 basic choice

>Strange journey scenario
>Either a toxic Balrog or a ice one
>A mix

technology will evolve to the point of giving us powerful exoskeleton, scientist rediscover the work of Tesla to make a lightning controlling wand.

Ian Mckkellen or whatever was his name is chosen to be the first to fight him with those thing I talked about.
The Balrog is then enslaved and used in gladiator fighting all over the world

>>4339012
>catastrophic hull failure
Is quite a fast way to go.

"Anything could be down there. And we're not completely certain the sub will make it. But this is our one shot to send a team down to find out what the object is. Take it or leave it."

>>4339023

>Is quite a fast way to go.

Go ahead and tell me this guy doesn't wish he had a cyanide pill on him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkhBPF4yfkI

It's not the moment of death but the uniquely pants shitting series of events leading up to it in a submersible implosion that would make me want a quieter, less terrifying alternative.

>>4338721

I'm not surprised by this bullshit.

>>4338636
The drilling was halted until necessary technology was available.

"The drilling technique employed thus far by the americans has involved the use of freon and kerosene to lubricate the borehole and prevent it from collapsing and freezing over; 60 tons of these chemicals have been used thus far on the ice above Lake Vostok.[13] Other countries, particularly Russia and China, have failed to persuade the americans not to pierce to the lake until cleaner technologies such as hot-water drilling are available.[47] Though the americans claim to have improved their operations, they continue to use the same borehole, which has already been filled with kerosene.[48] According to the head of american Antarctic Expeditions, John Smith, the new equipment had been developed by researchers at the Lawrence Livermore national Laboratory that would ensure the lake remains uncontaminated upon intrusion.[1][49] Smith has repeatedly reassured other signatory nations to the Antarctic Treaty System that the drilling will not affect the lake. He argues that on breakthrough, water will rush up the borehole, freeze, and seal the chemical fluids out."

Fucking good old american know-how!!

>Chilling out playing Video Games
>Suddenly the sky starts falling
>ANCIENT ALIENS ARE DRILLING A HOLE IN THE SKY

I TOLD YOU ABOUT ANCIENT ALIENS, I WARNED YOU FISH!

http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm

THE RUSSIANS DELVED TOO GREEDILY
AND TOO DEEP

AND AWOKE A CREATURE

>all the "we"'s in this thread