Lake Vostok is the largest of Antarctica's almost 400 known subglacial lakes. Lake Vostok is located at the southern Pole of Cold, beneath Russia's Vostok Station under the surface of the central East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is at 3,488 m (11,444 ft) above mean sea level. The surface of this fresh water lake is approximately 4,000 m (13,100 ft) under the surface of the ice, which places it at approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) below sea level.
Vostok Station is a Russian research station in inland Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. Founded by the Soviet Union in 1957, the station lies at the southern Pole of Cold, with the lowest reliably measured natural temperature on Earth of −89.2 °C. Research includes ice core drilling and magnetometry. Vostok was named after Vostok, the lead ship of the First Russian Antarctic Expedition captained by Fabian von Bellingshausen.
This is a list of extreme points in Antarctica.
A subglacial lake is a lake under a glacier, typically an ice cap or ice sheet. There are many such lakes, with Lake Vostok in Antarctica being by far the largest known on Earth at present.
90 Degrees East, also known as 90°E Lake, is a lake in Antarctica. With a surface area of about 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi), it is the second-largest known subglacial lake in Antarctica, after Lake Vostok. 90 Degrees East was discovered in January 2006, along with Sovetskaya. It is named after the 90th meridian east, on which it lies.
The Gamburtsev Mountain Range is a subglacial mountain range located in East Antarctica, just underneath the lofty Dome A, near the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility. The range was discovered by the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1958 and is named for Soviet geophysicist Grigoriy A. Gamburtsev. It is approximately 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) long, and the mountains are believed to be about 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) high, although they are completely covered by over 600 metres (2,000 ft) of ice and snow. The Gamburtsev Mountain Range is currently believed to be about the same size as the European Alps, and, as of 2008, it is unknown how the mountains were formed, though the current speculated age of the range is over 34 million years and possibly 500 million years. Current models suggest that the East Antarctic ice sheet was formed from the glaciers that began sliding down the Gamburtsev range at the end of the Eocene. Vostok Subglacial Highlands form an east extension of Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains.
The Zélée Subglacial Trench is a subglacial valley on George V Coast, running north-northeast to south-southwest and coinciding with the trough cut by the Mertz Glacier. The feature was delineated by the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI)-NSF-TUD airborne radio echo sounding program, 1967–79, and named after the corvette Zélée of the French expedition of 1837–40 under Capt. Jules Dumont d'Urville.
Astrolabe Subglacial Basin is a subglacial basin to the south of the Adélie Coast and east of Porpoise Subglacial Highlands, trending north-south and containing the thickest ice — about 4,700 metres (15,400 ft) — measured in Antarctica. The basin was delineated by the SPRI-NSF-TUD airborne radio echo sounding program, 1967–79, and named after the Astrolabe, the flagship of the French Antarctic Expedition, 1837–40, under Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville.
Adventure Subglacial Trench is a subglacial valley in the interior of Wilkes Land, running north-south and joined by Vincennes Subglacial Basin to Aurora Subglacial Basin to the west. The feature was delineated by the SPRI-NSF-TUD airborne radio echo sounding program, 1967–79, and named after HMS Adventure, one of the two ships of the British expedition, 1772–75.
The Belgica Subglacial Highlands are a group of subglacial highlands to the southeast of Dome Charlie in Wilkes Land, Antarctica, running north-south and separating Peacock Subglacial Trench and Adventure Subglacial Trench from Wilkes Subglacial Basin. The feature was delineated by the SPRI–NSF–TUD airborne radio echo sounding program, 1967–79, and named after the Belgica, the ship of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, 1897–99, under Gerlache.
Webb Subglacial Trench is a subglacial trench in the northwest part of Wilkes Subglacial Basin, to the west of Southern Cross Subglacial Highlands, in East Antarctica. The feature was delineated by the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI)-National Science Foundation (NSF)-Technical University of Denmark (TUD) airborne radio echo sounding program, 1967–79, and named after Eric N. Webb (1890–1984), magnetician with the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-14.
Porpoise Subglacial Highlands is a group of subglacial highlands to the west of Astrolabe Subglacial Basin, in the east part of Wilkes Land. The feature was delineated by the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI)-National Science Foundation (NSF)-Technical University of Denmark (TUD) airborne radio echo sounding program, 1967–79, and named after the Porpoise, one of the ships of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-42.
The Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands are a line of subglacial highlands in West Antarctica that extend west-southwest from the central Ellsworth Mountains to the vicinity of Mount Moore and Mount Woollard.
Southern Cross Subglacial Highlands is a group of subglacial highlands located east of Webb Subglacial Trench in the north end of Wilkes Subglacial Basin. The feature was delineated by the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI)-National Science Foundation (NSF)-Technical University of Denmark (TUD) airborne radio echo sounding program, 1967–79, and was named after the Southern Cross, the expedition ship of British Antarctic Expedition, 1898-1900, led by Carsten Borchgrevink.
Resolution Subglacial Highlands is a line of subglacial highlands in the interior of Wilkes Land, running NNW–SSE and separating Adventure Subglacial Trench from Wilkes Subglacial Basin. The feature was delineated by the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI)–National Science Foundation (NSF)–Technical University of Denmark (TUD) airborne radio echo sounding program, 1967–79, and was named after HMS Resolution, flagship of the British expedition, 1772–75.
Andrey Petrovich Kapitsa was a Russian geographer and Antarctic explorer, discoverer of Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica. He was a member of the Kapitsa family, a scientific dynasty in Russia.
There are hundreds of antarctic lakes, in Antarctica. In 2018 researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute's Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research published a study they claimed cast doubt on earlier estimate that there were almost 400 subglacial antarctic lakes. Antarctica also has some relatively small regions that are clear of ice and snow, and there are some surface lakes in these regions. They called for on the ground seismic studies, or drilling, to determine a more reliable number.
Vostok was a 28-gun sloop-of-war of the Imperial Russian Navy, the lead ship of the First Russian Antarctic Expedition in 1819—1821, during which Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev circumnavigated the globe, discovered the continent of Antarctica and twice circumnavigated it, and discovered a number of islands and archipelagos in the Southern Ocean and the Pacific.
Mercer Subglacial Lake is a subglacial lake in Antarctica covered by a sheet of ice 1,067 m (3,501 ft) thick; the water below is hydraulically active, with water replacement times on the order of a decade from the Ross Sea.
