In Australia Andrew Darby of the Sydney Morning Herald reports worry over Russian plans to punch into Lake Vostok, long sealed under miles of ice, over the next two summers. A drill bit has already penetrated the ice to within a few hundred meters of the lake’s liquid surface. Other scientists and enviros, at a meeting in Hobart, want them to take it easy. This issue has been surfacing in the press occasionally lately. Again in this instance, critics fear not enough is being done to prevent contamination of the lake, a 14,000-square-kilometer (5400 square mile) body of water sealed for many millenia some 3650 meters, or more than two miles, under the east Antarctic ice sheet. There could be exotic tube worms or who knows what down there. One wonders how to study such a place without wrecking it. The Russians say they will be careful.
See Also: May 25 Report on Russian Plans: BBC David Whitehouse;
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