A British research team in Antarctica has launched a long-awaited project to hunt for life in a lake hidden beneath the ice-sheet. A team of 12 scientists and engineers has begun work at remote Lake Ellsworth. They are using a high-pressure hose and sterilised water at near boiling point to blast a passage through more than two miles of ice. The aim is to analyse ice waters isolated for up to 500,000 years.
The process of opening a bore-hole is expected to last five days and will be followed by a rapid sampling operation before the ice refreezes.
Lake Ellsworth is one of several hundred lakes known to exist beneath the ice-sheet - its waters kept just above freezing temperature by the warmth of the rocks below and by pressure melting
For more information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20682647
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