Antarctica

[graveleye]

Nice slide show - Enjoy!

[Scott McCrea]

Is that limestone in the dry valleys? Are there caves in Antartica? I'm sure there are glacier caves and steam vents, but, what about solutional or lava tubes?

[graveleye]

i really dont know what the nature of the exposed rock is in Antarctica. I would think that since there is a lot of volcanic activity, there would be lava tubes a-plenty. But I really dont know if there is any limestone on the continent. I would say that it probably has limestone somewhere though.

Call in the experts!

[bill fish]

Sure...

The south pole is a HUGE place...so there has to be ALOT of limestone there....and the place used to be quite tropical due to continental drift and the constant shifting of the earths rotational axis....

So, I have no doubts that there WERE caves there at one time...

The real question would be are they STILL there....

And probably more importantly......if there are would any entrances be open?

My guess would be that in such a cold climate.....over such long periods of time....with snow blowing around....even if very rarely.....that cave entrances would become plugged with snow relatively quickly....particularly in terms of geologic time...and would STAY plugged...

Now thats not to say recent geothermal activitiy in a limestone cave area or the random sinkhole collapse/entrance formation might not reopen an old "normal" cave...or some other mechanism.....or that an "expert" might not see something and think "yep, that is most definitely a snow plugged cave passage....lets dig it out!

People often refer to caves as time capsules..well....limestone caves in antarctica are probably the "time capsules of time timecapsules" or to paraphrase Sodamn Insane....the mother of all timecapsules....

And of course the dry valleys are the PERFECT place to store a worlds worth of nuclear waste in safety and security...but when I make that suggestion most people react as if I've suggested the Vatican should open a chain of strip joints to increase church funding...

Caves down there should make the NASA search for life folks drool though....

Blll

[Wayne Harrison]

Lake Vostok is making NASA drool. It's as large as Lake Ontario with 1,300 cubic MILES of fresh water, covered with more than two miles of ice but is liquid and may harbor some forms of microbiotic life or extemeophiles that would make Hazel drool. They haven't tapped into it yet because they haven't perfected the technology and they don't want to contaminate it.

Pressure from the ice and geothermal activity from below keep it liquid at -3 C.

Scientists suggest that the lake could possess a unique habitat for ancient bacteria with an isolated microbial gene pool containing characteristics developed perhaps 500,000 years ago.

To probe the waters of Lake Vostok for life without contamination, plans were initiated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to start with a melter probe- the so-called "cryobot" - which melts down through the ice over Lake Vostok, unspooling a communications and power cable as it goes. The cryobot carries with it a small submersible, called a "hydrobot", which is deployed when the cryobot has melted to the ice-water interface. The hydrobot then swims off and "looks for life" with a camera and other instruments. Wikipedia

[Nico]

perhaps they could use DEPTHX

[JackW]

perhaps they could use DEPTHX

They are...

http://tinyurl.com/2hqorc

[Wayne Harrison]

Wow. Interesting article. Thanks for posting the link, Jack.. It even referenced Lake Vostok.

To me, getting into Lake Vostok will be as exciting as landing on Mars to search for life. It's hard to imagine how life might have adapted to conditions in the lake, cut off from the outside world for a million years.

[wvdirtboy]

The Russians plan to drill into Lake Vostok ahead of the US. They plan to use an existing hole that ends >100m above the top of the lake. The science community is not real happy with the Russians because their hole contains fluids that may contaminate the lake. The Russians insist that their plan is safe and their hole is clean enough. I doubt they will listen to others involved with the lake because the Russkies don't have money to make a cryobot; their existing hole is their only shot at the lake.

Contamination may be a moot point though. Satellite and ground sensing has turned up dozens of new lakes over the past few years. The lakes exchange water through burst floods that happen at the base of the ice. Some of the drainage paths actually connect to the sea. So, as others have noted, the lakes may not be "pristine", let alone isolated from the outside world for millions of years. Needless to say, this has been cause for disappointment for the folks who hope to find exotic organisms in Lake Vostok.

My four-year-old (on my lap) has asked that I insert this:

gregS

[graveleye]

My four-year-old (on my lap) has asked that I insert this:

gregS

[hewhocaves]

i did a little bit of a searcha few years ago looking for the cave on this planet closest to the south pole. i couldn't find any on Antarctica - not surprising as the data on it is pretty slim unless you ahve connections. i found a few caves on some of the very southern islands, mostly lava tubes / sea caves though. the ultimate idea was for an NSS News article about limestones of Antartica.

I volunteer to be on the first NSS Expedition to Antarctica.

Hey Greg, think Dr. Rauch would let an Antarctic thesis fly? lol FROZEN silty streaks.

[NZcaver]

A recent grotto newsletter of mine had a great article written by a member who went on an expedition to Antarctica hunting for meteorites. He also did a little caving, finding his way into the gaps that form between the ice fields and rock outcrops.

Something cool to tell his grandchildren, anyway!