Expedition to probe cavern lake 3km beneath Antarctic ice
The UK government has given the go-ahead for a team of British boffins to mount an expedition to a dark, cold lake buried in a cavern three kilometres beneath the ice sheet of Antarctica. The Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc) is funding university researchers and the British Antarctic Survey to explore icy Lake …
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Bizarre life-forms?
So that's where good ol' George Dubya is these days.
be careful what you bring back.
Didn't John Carpenter make a horribly prescient movie (starring Kurt Russell) about the perils of this sort of research?
Alien v Predator
powered by 5000 D cells?
Paris, as if there is any probing going on.....
someThing down there?
We require Kurt Russell, Keith David some swedes and lots of flamethrowers.
They'll discover ...
"strange extreme organisms evolved over aeons along a separate track to that followed by the ordinary surface lifeforms of the sunlit world."
Mark Zuckerberg then...
Surely easier to just wait..
Might as well take advantage of global warming and simply wait for the 3Km of ice to melt.
Still I'm looking forward to Grendel's Mother popping up - providing she looks like a giant naked golden Angeline Jolie as I've been led to believe.
Consequences?
Although, in the great tradition of fictional Spanish waiters, I know nothing, would someone please explain how, given that this lake remains liquid only due to the massive pressure of the ice above it, what's going to happen when someone sticks a hole in the ice?
I'm envisaging the creation some kind of massive water geyser as the pressure releases. So much for keeping the lake pristine then.
Anyone with more knowledge about these kind of things willing to correct me?
Contamination
My recollection is that the Russians were drilling there and got very close to the lake water. But there was concern that their drilling method used something like paraffin to lubricate the drill or something, and that this would contaminate the lake water. There was also concern that even without the hydrocarbons the drill would introduce micro-organisms from the surface that would potentially be very disruptive to a hypothesized ecosystem that had been isolated for millennia. Presumably this new effort will be using technology that's designed to avoid these problems.
As for what they'll find, here's a story about microbes that live under glaciers:
http://www.space.com/searchforlife/glacial_life_000829.html
Messing with things they don't understand.
Have they not seen "The Thing", AVP, "The Seeds of Doom (Dr Who), Happy Feet.
They'll uncover something and, not realising the danger, bring it back to Blighty where it will split open to release something that will eat / infect / absorb everyone.
And the Government and Police will be powerless to do anything because it won't be carrying an ID card!
Three cheers for Doug!
Finally the reputation of the master sci-fi/fantasy actor Doug McClure will be vindicated!
Quality of pre-expedition information
I like the fact that the USA have a 4 minute CGI extravaganza just for talking about spacesuits, but when the Brits have a go....here's some nice pictures by Quentin Blake.
Classy
Love this sentence:
"It's probably too much to hope for that the boffins will awaken some ancient horror, slumbering deep below the polar wastes"
Lewis, we love you. :-)
"Bizarre, 'extreme' prehistoric lifeforms expected"
So THAT'S where the current NuLabour cabinet ministers are from.
Forget about exploration, just take them back and seal up whatever hole they crawled out of in the first place.
I for one
Welcome our subterranean ice covered lake surviving overlords.
No Title
I can't help but think of the ending of War of The Worlds.
Question is, will we be wiped out by our lack of immunity to the germs of The Antarcticans, or will they be destroyed by ours?
what are the odds
That they find a invite only Pinguin Rave club ??
paris might be there for 25,000 fish
What if the Scientists do find evidence of lifeform evolution...
Oh, what am I saying..... Quick pass me that rosary, I must seek forgiveness.
Mine's the big thick puffa jacket and Antarctic boots with heretic on the back and tinfoil hat and very thick ear muffs in the pocket.
Re: May I be the first
> to welcome our Antartic overlords
You may, because everyone else will be welcoming our AntarCtic overlords.
When the Lord was passing out Brains, you thought he said Trains, and didn't get any?
@Matt Underwood
"a giant naked golden Angelina Jolie" .... hmmmmmm .... y'know., it's so cold down there that everything gets stiff and erect and..... oh, p'haps we should focus on the Kurt Russell scenario instead, it'll be alot more gory but a lot less frustrating for the boys !
@Secretgeek
I'm visualising a system that can 'melt' rather than drill (or perhaps a combination of the two) it's way through the ice, thus the ice above it re-freezes and thus remains sealed.
Tuh dah!!!!
:-)
now that,
Now that would set the world to rights and put humanity into perspective, awakening some great old one who has been slumbering in its lake for millenia surrounded by its grotesque minders locked away from hummanity. 3miles of ice is a fair old distance even for a monster of such hideous power, especially once theres been an some kind of surface catastrophy. Why not just go to sleep until a species with the power to dig you out appears.
But yes Mountains of Madness indeed.
"We've got to go on, we can't stop now." As the great old ones psychic influence grows over the party of scientists until they become slavish demi-humans bent to the will of unspeakable evil.
Now that would indeed be an exciting conclusion to our species.
Ahh well, one can dream.
Why is it nobody makes new films now anyway?
@Secretgeek
Yes. A massive geyser will erupt, drowning all of the scientists.
I have personally observed ice fishermen drilling holes in ice sheets. When the hole is completed, there is a geyser. Then the ice sheet immediately sinks to the bottom of the lake, drowning all the fishermen.
A title is required.
Bah got here far too late to mention missing Norwegians and other Thing quotes....
Argh and someone has all ready welcomed our Antartic overlords...
only one thing to say.... Wibble
@ Lionel Baden.... Penguin Raves! just what I needed to cheer up a bad day at work.
Not Cthulhu
Cthulhu's in the south pacific.
Elder Things... well, if scientists start being methodically dissected then maybe.
The ancient one arises!
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh C'thulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
Mines the one with the all angles that don't look right and the tentacles coming out of the pockets.
As long as
They don't find Megatron we're all going to be OK. IF they do however, I want to welcome our Decepticon overlords.
I love the hand drawn graphics
Yes, these guys are real scientist, no freaking power point/ photo shop.
Give me a HB pencil and some napkins!
Overlords? Pah!
I for one, welcome our be-tentacled, icy underlords!
Re: As long as
I am more worried about a dead ancient berried under the antarctic StarGate. Or digging out the StarGate in the first place (though should not bother the Goaul'd that are sleeping).
Ancient horrors in Antarctic lakes?
For a great recent take on this, may I recommend Charles Stross' "A Colder War", freely available to read right here: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm
If you like a bit of ia and fhtagn with your cold war drama it will suit you right down to the ground.
@By Mystra..
"ia ia cthulhu fhtagn!"
o r'lyeh?
"Ia! Yog-Sothoth! "Yi nash Yog Sothoth he lgeb throdag! Ia!"
I need some peanut butter
... so I can speak like some of 'youse.
Mine's the one with the spoon and the giant jar of Skippy bulging out of the pocket.
this is of course
they dont unearth some device to give them unstoppable power - in this case, i for one welcome our new bearded overlords! ;D
Puts me in mind
of a "campaign" bumper sticker I saw during the recent unpleasantness which read:
C'thulu in '08 - why settle for the lesser of two evils?
And yes, I know C'thulu's not in the Antarctic - this story just reminded me of the sticker via the HPL Mountains of Madness commentary.
(evil billg because he's probably a C'thulu worshiper)
@Simpson
No need to get sarky, it was a legit question.
No, I didn't expect all the water to come out through the hole and the surface to collapse. However, not having much experience of drilling 3 miles of ice into subterranean lakes I was making the assumption that the effect would be similar to an oil well.
Sarcasm's fine if the answer was obvious but If you can't give a straight answer to a reasonably asked question just fuck off.
@ Lionel Baden
Are you talking about "Penguin Rave" as in dancing + alcohol + penguins = party
or LUG?
@AC 16:37 GMT
You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between a "Penguin Rave" that would involve certain LUGs or a party involving alcohol + various and assorted mind altering substances + our Sphenicidae friends :-). Either one is bound to end up with some weird stuff happening at the end.
That water looks refreshing
Bottle it up and ship it here to the States pls
Mind the giant penguins
If they find those, CLOSE the tunnel! It might be too late when you see the shoggoths...
I don't believe it for a minute
Surely if there were bizarre lifeforms in an under-ice watery lair, there would be a Playmobil reenactment of the glorious battle against them?
@Secretgeek
I didn't take his answer that way at all.
Anyway, I expect they'll just put the plug in.
Playmobil Shoggoths and Old Ones..
..with frickin' laser beams coming out of their eyes.
now *that* would be awesome!
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