Expect Some Really Amazing Metagenome Data from Russia

Success! Russian Team Breaches Buried Antarctic Lake

It’s official. Russian scientists announced today that they have reached Antarctica’s Lake Vostok, an ancient, liquid lake the size of Lake Ontario buried beneath more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) of ice for at least 14 million years.

Scientists suspect that the massive lake could house cold-loving organisms uniquely adapted to live in the darkness under the ice. The lake has been cut off from the outside world since the ice sheet covered it as long as 34 million years ago, or, according to the most modest estimates, 14 million years ago.