Last year, the team drilled through almost 4km (2.34 miles) of ice to reach the lake and retrieve samples.

Vostok is thought to have been cut off from the surface for millions of years.

This has raised the possibility that such isolated bodies of water might host microbial life forms new to science.

"After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in the global database," said Sergei Bulat, of the genetics laborator...
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Christine Ngai, of the University of Nevada, Reno, was among the researchers who found the first goldfish during a survey of invasive fish in the lake.

“You just see this bright golden orange thing starting to float up, and you’re like, what is that? And then you take a net and you scoop it up and you’re like, it’s a goldfish,” Ngai said of the initial discovery.

Ngai had heard stories from fishing guides about large goldfish, but they were the first to document the species.

“Then wh...
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An ambitious mission to drill through 3km (1.8 miles) of Antarctic ice to a lake that has been sealed off for thousands of years has been cut short.

The team at Lake Ellsworth decided to call off the mission in the early hours of Christmas Day UK time.

They were unable to join the main borehole with a parallel hole that was to be used to recover drilling water.

The team is now "weatherising" the equipment and it is unclear when they will be able to resume the project.

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Once back on UK soil, t...
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Researchers found a diverse community of bugs living in the lake's dark environment, at temperatures of -13C.< Furthermore, they say the lake's life forms have been sealed off from the outside world for some 2,800 years.< Details of the work have been outlined in the journal PNAS.< Lake Vida, the largest of several unique lakes found in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, contains no oxygen, is acidic, mostly frozen and possesses the highest nitrous oxide levels of any natural water body on Earth.< ...
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Maybe a Lake Ellsworth episode in the future,,,and yes, John Carpenter's  "The Thing" jokes are once again flying around the web in regards to this attempt,,,

Their target, Lake Ellsworth, may house tiny organisms utterly new to science, and may proffer the first solid clues regarding the age of the massive ice sheet that covers it.

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The massive undertaking is aimed at one simple goal: to fetch 24 small titanium canisters of lake water — just 3.3 ounces (100 milliliters) each — along wi...
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Today New York City is the Big Apple of the Northeast but new research reveals that 500 years ago, at a time when Europeans were just beginning to visit the New World, a settlement on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Canada, was the biggest, most complex, cosmopolitan place in the region.

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Now, a scholarly book detailing the discoveries is being prepared and a documentary about the site called "Curse of the Axe" aired this week on the History Channel in Canada.

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"It's the large...
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Pacific sleeper sharks, also known as Greenland sharks, are commonly seen in the waters around Alaska and have been known to grow up to 14 feet in length. If a sleeper shark has managed to survive in Lake Iliamna, Wright says it would have an abundance of fish to feed on and no natural predators.

[,,,] Wright says the sleeper sharks have "proven themselves to be very adaptable" and may become the Arctic's top predator due to the effects of global climate change. The sleeper sharks tradition...
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• Drilling successful as scientists break through into lake buried miles under Antarctic ice
• Scientists confirm breakthrough into buried lake
• Have raised sample of 40 litres of water
• Frozen sample will be removed in December in next Antarctic summer
  
• 'Like exploring another planet except this one is ours', scientist
  
• Lake has had no contact with man-made pollutants or Earthly life forms for millions of years

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Washington Post National By Marc Kaufman, Published: January 31

After drilling for two decades through more than two miles of antarctic ice, Russian scientists are on the verge of entering a vast, dark lake that hasn’t been touched by light for more than 20 million years.

Scientists are enormously excited about what life-forms might be found there but are equally worried about contaminating the lake with drilling fluids and bacteria, and the potentially explosive “de-gassing” of a body ...

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