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Russian bid to drill Antarctic lake gets chilly response

Nature volume 430, page 494 (2004)Cite this article

The Russian team will begin drilling down to Lake Vostok, which lies nearly 4,000 metres below the surface and is thought to have been isolated for 20 million years, in December.

But experts say that the team's equipment has not been properly tested and could contaminate the potentially unique ecosystems that inhabit Vostok's 5,400 cubic kilometres of water.

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  1. Jim Giles
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Giles, J. Russian bid to drill Antarctic lake gets chilly response. Nature 430, 494 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/430494b

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