Posted on 12/29/2007 9:07:37 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Researchers have uncovered a complex subglacial system miles under the ice where rivers larger than the Amazon link a series of "lake districts," which may teem with mineral-hungry microbes. This watery environment may be more than one-and-a-half times the size of the United States, scientists say, which would make it the world's largest wetland... Studinger's research focuses on "recovery lakes," part of a a series of cascading lakes found earlier this year under the ice sheet. The lakes... ebb and flow as they empty into the polar sea. They stay fluid because the ice sheet above acts like a gigantic down blanket, trapping heat rising from Earth's interior. About 145 lakes have been found, under ice up to 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) thick... Outbursts from subglacial lakes, for example, may have a lot to do with how the continents are shaped and reshaped. The lakes may also hold an untapped wealth of climate records that could improve our understanding of how life evolved, he added. Some of these mysteries might be cracked within months, when Russian scientists drill down 2.3 miles (3.8 kilometers) to reach Lake Vostok. The giant lake, 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) beneath eastern Antarctica, was found in 1996 using satellite imagery and specialized radar technology.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
This topic article (above) came to my attention because a search a week or so ago for “Chris McKay” of NASA brought up this one:
Warning: Well in Antarctica may pop like a can of Coke
Knight-Ridder Tribune News | August 14, 2003 | Joshua L. Kwan
Posted on 08/14/2003 11:46:58 AM EDT by Dog Gone
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/964070/posts
[take the Pepsi challenge! but anyway, related topics]
Antarctica’s underground Lake Vostok could be teeming with life
Source: New Scientist
Published: 2/21/01
Posted on 02/20/2001 09:34:30 PST by dead
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a92aaa62f16.htm
Cold And Deep: Antarctica’s Lake Vostok Has Two Big Neighbors
Science News Online | 2-8-2006 | Sid Perkins
Posted on 02/08/2006 6:52:36 PM EST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1574694/posts
[somewhat related]
Oldest ever ice core promises climate revelations
newscientist.com | September 8, 2003 | Magdeline Pokar, Milan
Posted on 09/08/2003 10:22:36 AM EDT by forsnax5
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/978102/posts
Antarctica ‘Lost World’ Found
CNN | 08/14/2005
Posted on 08/15/2005 4:01:20 PM EDT by TerP26
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1463873/posts
[much more interesting]
Giant asteroid rocked Antarctica
Near Earth Object Information Centre | 8/20/2004 | staff
Posted on 10/18/2004 12:26:51 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1248406/posts
The Eltanin Impact Crater
Geological Society of America | October 27-30, 2002
Christy A. Glatz, Dallas H. Abbott, and Alice A. Nunes
Posted on 10/18/2004 12:46:13 AM EDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1248414/posts
Big Bang In Antarctica — Killer Crater Found Under Ice
Ohio State University | 01 June 2006 | Staff (press release)
Posted on 06/01/2006 5:26:58 PM EDT by PatrickHenry
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1641966/posts
Does a giant crater lie beneath the Antarctic ice?
nature news | 2 06 | Mark Peplow
Posted on 06/05/2006 12:07:10 PM EDT by S0122017
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1643681/posts
[whacked!]
What is Happening at the South Pole?
Source: The Enterprise Mission
Published: April 2001 Author: Richard Hoagland and Associates
Posted on 04/23/2001 23:11:12 PDT by ravinson
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3ae519000490.htm
Japan Scientists Find Million-Year-Old Ice (in Antarctica)
abcnews.go.com | 1/24/2006 | AP
Posted on 03/27/2006 4:26:18 AM EST by S0122017
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1603789/posts
Forests Frozen In Time
Science Frontiers (#51) | May-Jun 1987 | William R. Corliss
Posted on 01/15/2005 3:53:29 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1321587/posts
Atlantis???
Weelll, we know it isn’t Thailand.
8^)
Heh heh...
Not a chantlis.... ;’)
...and imagine, an entire country which revolves around fashionable neckware...
True, Atlantis could be in a galaxy far far away..
I didn’t either until I looked it up.
What is it?
It’s the skeleton of somethin’ or other. :’) At first I thought it might be a seal (dead, beached seals aren’t uncommon in Antarctica), but this looks a little long.
Crocodile?
Now wouldn't it be funny if...nah, it's just a pointy-headed seal...
If it’s fossil (and it doesn’t look like it, in my amateur opinion), it could be crocodile, otherwise probably not. :’)
Thanks for that link, Fred.
Truth is reliably stranger than fiction.
;-)
It was a seal.
It looks a little too good, eh?
Either a very large seal, or very small rocks.
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