What is Lake Vostok?

Vostok (English: Lake Vostok, also translated Lake Fostok, Fustu Lake, Oriental Lake), Antarctica is more than 140 subglacial lakes, the largest underground water body, is also the world's largest subglacial lake, It is located at 77 ° S 105 ° E, 1,500 kilometers from the Antarctic coastline, and 3500 meters above sea level. Vostok Lake is close to Russia's Vostok (orient) station and 4 km below the surface of the ice. Office.

Vostok

In 1960, Russian geographer Andrei

Scientists have confirmed that East Lake has a large amount of liquid water, which is currently the largest ultra-pure water system on the planet. It is speculated that the lake has a water content comparable to that of Lake Ontario, which is about 5,400 cubic kilometers. Much more. This water has been trapped under thick ice caps for at least a million years, so East Lake may be the smallest lake on the planet with the most fluctuating water volume. The average water temperature of the lake is -3 ° C, and they are all unfrozen fresh water. The fact that water is still below the freezing point may be caused by the combination of three factors: the heat from the center of the earth raises the temperature at the bottom of the lake, which keeps the water in a liquid state; the huge pressure caused by the thick ice layer reduces the freezing point of the water; Insulate the lake from the cold air on the surface of the Antarctic.

Vostok Lake schematic (4 photos)

East Lake is a poor (nutrient-deficient) extreme environment. The lake water is a supersaturated solution of oxygen, and its concentration is about 50 times that of ordinary freshwater lakes. The cause of this phenomenon is most likely the pressure caused by the heavy ice caps above the East Lake. Oxygen and other gases not only dissolve in water, but also form clathrates. The crystal cage refers to a crystal structure in which gas molecules dissolved in water are closed by a regular dodecahedron surrounded by more than twenty water molecules when the water freezes. The appearance of the cage structure looks like ice cubes. This structure is unstable under normal pressure and can only be formed in high pressure environments such as the East Lake or the deep sea. Therefore, when the water of the East Lake is exposed to the outside air, it may spray like a soda pop. There is no such high concentration of oxygen on earth. If life exists here, it is also unique. They must evolve special structures or have strange enzymes to ensure that they are not affected by high concentrations of oxygen. ^[1]