For the second time in history, the scientists in Antarctica received an amazing gift from Santa this year. They got access to a mysterious subglacial lake which was buried under more than 3,500 feet of ice.
They reached the Mercer Subglacial Lake on 26th of December after a few days of drilling, announced Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) in a blog post.
The team of drillers, scientists and other staff members along with the organization were able to see the body of water by sending an instrument down a borehole. They said that it might be twice Manhattan’s size.
Over the next few days, the team will keep an eye on everything that has to do with the subglacial lake including temperature, depth, and cleanliness of the water.
The team is keen on finding as much as possible from the goodies that these lakes hide as it hosts a unique and sealed biosystem. It is crucial to retrieve as much information as possible as it will help in future research. This is why the team decided to keep as much as eight days only for sampling the water.
According to the coordinator of the project who offered Earther researchers a statement, their goal is to find out more about what kind of life exists at that depth under ice.
This is quite an adventure for the team of researchers that will surely not stop until they find enough information to satisfy their desires and provide answers to their questions. The Mercer Subglacial Lake was discovered more than a decade ago via satellite, but it is the first time that scientists have the actual chance to get in touch with it, and it is not one of a kind. About 400 other such lakes are waiting to be discovered.
