Lake Vostok
Antarctica's largest known subglacial lake
AI overview
Lake Vostok is a massive freshwater lake buried beneath nearly 2.5 miles of Antarctic ice, making it one of the world's largest lakes despite being completely hidden from view. Scientists are interested in studying it because it may contain unique life forms that have evolved in isolation for millions of years, potentially offering insights into how life might exist in extreme environments elsewhere in the universe.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
Lake Vostok (Russian: озеро Восток, romanized: ozero Vostok) is the largest of Antarctica's 675 known subglacial lakes and the 16th largest lake in the world by area. Lake Vostok is located at the southern Pole of Cold, beneath Russia's Vostok Station, under the surface of the central East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is at 3,488 m (11,444 ft) above mean sea level. The surface of this fresh water lake is approximately 4,000 m (13,100 ft) under the surface of the ice, which places it at approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) below sea level.
The lake is named after the Vostok Station, which derives its name from Vostok (Восток), the name of a sloop-of-war, which means "East" in Russian (the lake is also located in East Antarctica). The existence of a subglacial lake was first suggested by Russian geographer Andrey Kapitsa based on seismic soundings made during the Soviet Antarctic Expeditions in 1959 and 1964 to measure the thickness of the ice sheet. Continued research by Russian and British scientists led to the final confirmation of the existence of the lake in 1993 by J. P. Ridley using ERS-1 laser altimetry.