The Antarctic Subglacial Lake Vostok: Glaciology, Biology and Planetology (Springer Praxis Books / Geophysical Sciences)

The first book on the subject, this monograph examines the phenomenon of a huge sealed, freshwater lake, isolated from the rest of the world by kilometers' thick ice. The existence of melting ice at the bottom of the huge Vostok Lake has served as a model and inspired the team planning the Galileo space craft to gather data on the ice sheet of the Jupiterian moon Europa. The book provides interpretation of, and calculations for, stimulating factors for possible melting and a huge lake's existence at the bottom of the Martian ice sheets. "Over 30 years ago, the scientific community was thrilled by the discovery of Lake Vostok. Covered by 4000 meters of thick ice, this vast freshwater lake, up to more than 1000 meters deep, has been separated from the rest of the world for a million years." "The Antarctic Subglacial Lake Vostok is the first book to tell the story of the lake from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint : glaciology, geology, biology and engineering. It shows how the theories that the lake existed were finally proved by observations and analyses of the scientific data that have been gathered over the past decades."--Résumé de l'éditeur "Over 30 years ago, the scientific community was thrilled by the discovery of Lake Vostok. Covered by 4000 meters of thick ice, this vast freshwater lake, up to more than 1000 meters deep, has been separated from the rest of the world for a million years." "The Antarctic Subglacial Lake Vostok is the first book to tell the story of the lake from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint: glaciology, geology, biology and engineering. It shows how the theories that the lake existed were finally proved by observations and analyses of the scientific data that have been gathered over the past decades."--BOOK JACKET From Lake Vostok to Europa: Tractors and satellites....Pages 1-7 Water below the central part of the ice sheet....Pages 9-21 Does subglacial water exist?....Pages 23-30 Discovery of subglacial lakes by radio-echo sounding....Pages 31-38 The need for reinterpretation of seismic data....Pages 39-45 A thick water layer exists under Vostok Station!....Pages 47-49 Deep drilling at Vostok Station....Pages 51-67 Vostok Station and the ice shelf....Pages 69-86 New data on Lake Vostok....Pages 87-94 Plan for the international study of Lake Vostok....Pages 95-100 Penetration of Lake Vostok....Pages 101-124