Russian scientists have confirmed that they have penetrated Antarctica’s Lake Vostok, an event that may “expand the limits of life on Earth,” a U.S. scientist says.
At 8:25 p.m. Moscow time on Sunday, drillers hit lake water at a depth of 12,355 feet (3,766 meters)—making them the first ever to probe a subglacial lake, according to a statement provided by Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute.
Mahlon C. Kennicutt II, a professor of oceanography at Texas A&M University, said that the confirmation appears to be accurate.
That’s because the Russian scientists recorded an increase in pressure at the bottom of the borehole—an “obvious clue” that they broke through the ice.
