Lake Vostok

Lake Vostok is a huge freshwater lake buried beneath approximately 3,800 meters of ice. The extent of the sub-glacier lake is shown by a region of extremely low relief in the ice surace. The lake is sustained by a combination of geothermal heat and the insulating properties of the polar ice sheet. Vostok Station is located on the southern tip of the lake and is the site of a drilling effort that will soon permit exploration in search of life in this extreme environment.

NOTE: White and/or blue colors used in the annotations are simply for better contrast against the background and have no other significance.

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