RT | Russian researchers have found unidentified bacteria in waters of the
unique sub-glacial Lake Vostok. However, this is not a sensational
discovery since the microorganism was found in possible kerosene
contaminated waters.
The finding from the water sample taken in May 2012 showed that
the bacteria do not belong to any of the existing classes of
bacteria. Before the latest discovery, science knew only one
species of bacteria that can live under these conditions.
“The last analysis was completed a week ago - there will be
another, but the results are unlikely to change anything. After
exclusion of all known contaminants - extraneous organisms -
bacterial DNA was detected, which does not coincide with any of the
known species in the world,” RIA Novosti quotes Sergey Bulat of
the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in Russia.
However, the discovery turns out not to be that sensational.
“There has been one strain of bacteria which we did not find in
drilling liquid, but these bacteria could in principal use kerosene
as an energy source,” the head of the laboratory of the same
institution, Vladimir Korolev said. "That is why we can’t say
that a previously-unknown bacteria was found,” he
stressed.
In February 2012 Russian researchers became the first in the
world to reach the waters of Lake Vostok after more than decades of
drilling work.
This year, on January 10, scientists came up with another
record. They managed to reach the fresh ice at a depth of 3383
meters and took samples at 3,406 meters. Ice formed as the water
from the lake rose into the hole due to upward-pressure in the
crack researchers drilled last February.
Last year Russian scientists managed to drill through 3700
meters of ice, reach the surface of the lake and take 40 liters of
prehistoric water. However, those samples, scientists said later,
were not clean enough to prove the existence of any kind of life –
the water contained some substances of drilling liquid, kerosene
and Freon, used while getting through the thick ice.
As recently as March 1, Russian researchers successfully
obtained fresh ice samples from the lake as the work continues
there. They said it would take months to clarify whether life
exists in the fossil water below the 3.5-km deep glacier.
All water samples will be brought to St. Petersburg in May on
board the research ship Academic Fyodorov, which is currently
working in the Antarctic.
