Vostok Station
Nationality: Russia
Location: Vostok - an outpost if there ever was one - is located near the South Geomagnetic Pole, at the center of the East Antarctic ice sheet, where the flux in the earth's electromagnetic field is manifested.
Vostok Station History: It was built in 1957 (IGY) and named for one of Bellinghausen's two ships, Vostok (East). The station was resupplied by semi-annual tractor-train expeditions that took a month to travel the 868 miles (1400k) from the coast.
Information:
The coldest recorded temperature on Earth, -128.6°F (-89.2°C) was measured here on July 21, 1983.
Latitude/Longitude: 78°27'51"S 106°51'57"E
Altitude: 11,484 ft (3,500 m) above sea level
Average Annual Temperature: -67°F (-55°C)
Science:
Although this is a Russian research station, scientists from all over the world conduct research here. One of the primary projects at this site, a coordinated Russian, French and American effort, is drilling an ice core through the 3,700 m thick ice sheet. This ice core contains climate records for almost half a million years before present.
Big Bang in Antarctica - Killer Crater Found Under Ice
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Planetary scientists have found evidence of a meteor impact much larger and earlier than the one that killed the dinosaurs -- an impact that they believe caused the biggest mass extinction in Earth's history.
The 300-mile-wide crater lies hidden more than a mile beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. And the gravity measurements that reveal its existence suggest that it could date back about 250 million years -- the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction, when almost all animal life on Earth died out.
Discovery Of Antarctic Subglacial Rivers May Challenge Excavation Plans
Plans to drill deep beneath the frozen wastes of the Antarctic, to investigate subglacial lakes where ancient life is thought to exist, may have to be reviewed following a discovery by a British team led by UCL (University College London) scientists at the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM).
Two more lakes near Vostok
Scientists have discovered two more subglacial lakes, raising renewed speculation of the existance of living ecosystems below the ice.
Team probes buried Antarctic lake
On the frozen Antarctic continent, subglacial lakes are a hot spot of scientific interest, but the information they contain remains untapped.
“The ice sheet in Antarctica can be as much as 5 kilometers thick, and at the bottom point, it can be quite warm, as warm as the melting point of ice,” said Sridhar Anandakrishnan, who led a science team to the South Pole this season to learn more about one lake that rests about 16 kilometers away from the U.S. Antarctic Program station.
LINK FOR ALL THE ABOVE ARTICLES... http://www.antarcticconnection.com/a...02/index.shtml