Alistair MacLean
Born	April 28, 1922(1922-04-28) Glasgow, Scotland
Died	February 2, 1987 (aged 64) Munich, Germany
Nationality	Scottish
Education	University of Glasgow
Occupation	Author and teacher

Alistair Stuart MacLean (28 April 1922 - 2 February 1987; Scottish Gaelic: Alasdair MacGill-Eain) was a Scottish novelist who wrote successful thrillers or adventure stories, the best known of which are perhaps The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare, both having been made into successful films. He also wrote two novels under the pseudonym Ian Stuart.

Life

MacLean was the son of a minister, and learned English as his second language after his mother tongue, Scottish Gaelic. He was born in Glasgow but spent much of his childhood and youth in Daviot, ten miles south of Inverness.

He joined the Royal Navy in 1941, serving in World War II with the ranks of Ordinary Seaman, Able Seaman, and Leading Torpedo Operator. He was first assigned to PS Bournemouth Queen, a converted excursion ship fitting for anti-aircraft guns, on duty off the coasts of England and Scotland. From 1943, he served on HMS Royalist, a Dido-class light cruiser. On Royalist he saw action in 1943 in the Atlantic theatre, on two Arctic convoys and escorting carrier groups in operations against Tirpitz and other targets off the Norwegian coast; in 1944 in the Mediterranean theatre, as part of the invasion of southern France and in helping to sink blockade runners off Crete and bombard Milos in the Aegean Sea (during this time MacLean may have been injured in a gunnery practice accident); and in 1945, in the Far East theatre, escorting carrier groups in operations against Japanese targets in Burma, Malaya, and Sumatra. (MacLean's late-in-life claims that he was captured by the Japanese and tortured have been dismissed by both his son and his biographer as drunken ravings. [Webster p. 191]) After the Japanese surrender, Royalist helped evacuate liberated POWs from Changi Prison in Singapore.

MacLean was released from the Royal Navy in 1946. He then studied English at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1953, and then worked as a school teacher in Rutherglen.

While a university student, MacLean began writing short stories for extra income, winning a competition in 1954 with the maritime story "Dileas". The publishing company Collins asked him for a novel and he responded with HMS Ulysses, based on his own war experiences, as well as credited insight from his brother Ian, a Master Mariner. The novel was a great success and MacLean was soon able to devote himself entirely to writing war stories, spy stories and other adventures.

In the early 1960s, MacLean published two novels under the pseudonym "Ian Stuart" in order to prove that the popularity of his books was due to their content rather than his name on the cover. They sold well, but MacLean made no attempt to change his writing style and his fans may easily have recognized him behind the Scottish pseudonym. MacLean's books eventually sold so well that he moved to Switzerland as a tax exile. From 1963–1966, he took a hiatus from writing to run a hotel business in England.

MacLean's later books were not as well received as the earlier ones and, in an attempt to keep his stories in keeping with the time, he sometimes lapsed into overly improbable plots. He also struggled constantly with alcoholism, which eventually brought about his death in Munich in 1987. He is buried a few yards from Richard Burton in Céligny, Switzerland. He was married twice and had three sons with his first wife.

MacLean was awarded a Doctor of Letters by the University of Glasgow in 1983.

Style of writing

Compared to other thriller writers of the time, such as Ian Fleming, MacLean's books are exceptional in one way at least: they have an absence of sex and most are short on romance because MacLean thought that such diversions merely serve to slow down the action. Nor do the MacLean books resemble the more recent techno-thriller approach. Instead, he lets little hinder the flow of events in his books, making his heroes fight against seemingly unbeatable odds and often pushing them to the limits of their physical and mental endurance. MacLean's heroes are usually calm, cynical men entirely devoted to their work and often carrying some kind of secret knowledge. A characteristic twist is that one of the hero's closest companions turns out a traitor.

Nature, especially the sea and the Arctic north, plays an important part in MacLean's stories, and he used a variety of exotic parts of the world as settings to his books. Only one of them, When Eight Bells Toll, is set in his native Scotland. MacLean's best books are often those in which he was able to make use of his own direct knowledge of warfare and seafare, such as HMS Ulysses which is now considered a classic of naval fiction.

Stylistically, MacLean's novels can be broken down into four periods:

1. HMS Ulysses through to The Last Frontier. These featured third-person narratives and a somewhat epic tone, and were mostly set during World War II. The Last Frontier contained overt philosophical and moral themes that were not well received. MacLean then switched gears to —
2. Night Without End through to Ice Station Zebra. These all featured first person (and sometimes unreliable) narration laced with a dry, sardonic, self-depreciating humour, and were all set in contemporary times. These are MacLean's most intensely plotted tales, masterfully blending thriller and detective elements. MacLean then retired from writing for three years, returning with —
3. When Eight Bells Toll through to Bear Island, a varied collection that still maintained a generally high quality, with some books harking back to each of the first two periods but usually taking a more cinematic approach (not surprising since he began writing screenplays during this time).
4. The Way to Dusty Death to the end. There were no more first-person stories, and his prose is thought to have often sagged, with excessive dialogue, lazily described scenes, and under-developed characters. All the books sold reasonably well, but MacLean never regained his classic form.

Certain themes are repeated in virtually all of MacLean's novels. For example, they typically feature a male character who is depicted as physically and morally indestructible (for instance, Carrington in HMS Ulysses; Andrea in The Guns of Navarone); such characters are also often described as having an almost inhuman tolerance for alcohol consumption (for instance, the Count in The Last Frontier; Jablonsky in Fear is the Key). Other minor traits or actions also turn up in every book, such as the cliche of characters shaking their heads in order to come to their senses after receiving a blow to the head. "Mediterranean" or Latin American characters are almost always depicted as criminals (as with Gregori in The Satan Bug, Miguel and Tony Carreras in The Golden Rendezvous, and so forth).

Altogether, MacLean published 28 novels and a collection of short stories, as well as books about T. E. Lawrence and James Cook.

MacLean also wrote screenplays, some of them based on his novels and others later novelized by other writers. Around 1980, he was commissioned by an American movie production company to write a series of story outlines to be subsequently produced as movies. He invented the fictitious United Nations Anti-Crime Organization (UNACO), and the books were later completed by others. Among these are Hostage Tower by John Denis and Death Train by Alastair MacNeill. Some of these works bear little resemblance to MacLean's style, especially in their use of gratuitous sex and violence.

Many of MacLean's novels were made into films, but none completely captured the level of detail and the intensity of his writing style as exemplified in classics such as Fear is the Key; the two most artistically and commercially successful film adaptations were The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare.

After his death, the popularity of his work saw a decline, and, according to Amazon.com, as of 2006 none of his novels are in print in the U.S. However, most are currently still in print in paperback in the UK.

List of works

A collection of MacLean's fiction works from 1955 to 1971, published by Heron Books (London) in the mid-1970s

Novels

UNACO books by other authors

Golden Girl Series by other authors

Movies with Screenplay Contribution

Other Movies

 Notes on the books

• Force 10 from Navarone, MacLean's only sequel, picks up from where the film version of The Guns of Navarone leaves off, not his original novel. The book anticipates the much lighter works of MacLean's later years, and seems to be more of a tossed-off "pastiche" of his other works, occasionally descending into nearly farcical humour.
• MacLean's only other use of inter-novel continuity is a police character from Puppet on a Chain reappearing in Floodgate.
• MacLean wrote the novel and screenplay of Where Eagles Dare at the same time. In effect it was commissioned by Richard Burton, who wanted to make a "boy's own" type adventure film that he could take his son to see. The book and screenplay differ markedly in that, in the book, Smith and Schaffer at times go out of their way not to kill anyone, whereas in the film they basically shoot anything that moves. In fact, the film contains Clint Eastwood's highest on-screen body count. Also, in the book, Schaffer is considerably more talkative than Eastwood's laconic interpretation.
• Where Eagles Dare and Guns of Navarone have similar plots; the "MacLean Formula" used in both is as follows: impregnable fortress which requires a commando team to be sent in; one of the team is not what he/she seems; betrayal in a public place; barricade a door for the getaway; mountain climbing; escape by jumping into water; good guys win. Amazingly, all these contrivances seem to work quite well.
• There have been reports of a "lost" MacLean novel titled Snow on the Ben, but it appears to be by a different Ian Stuart (refer ISBN 0-7089-6503-2).
• MacLean's chief female characters are frequently named Mary, or a variation thereupon (Marie, Maria). They are usually described as intelligent, whether they are professionals like the hero or not. Some are exceptionally adept at the spy game; more come through strongly despite a lack of experience. A few seem puzzlingly incapable. MacLean's characterization of these is a key, although subtle, plot point.
• A number of MacLean's chief male characters are named John. In a few of his mid-period books, his male protagonists have "savagely scarred" faces that they believe render them unattractive to women; they are usually proven wrong by book's end.
• The lead female character dies in a few of the early to mid period books. The male lead protagonist always survives and is successful in countering the odds.
• His villains become more stereotypical and self-referential over time, usually featuring a coldly competent and ruthless mastermind paired with a hulking, brutishly powerful subordinate.
• Exceptions to the little-romance rule include one novel where the protagonist is rewarded for his labors by winning the love of the beautiful daughter of a millionaire, and conversely another which ends with its protagonist committing murder to avenge the death of his beloved. In other books, the romantic angle is in the past, as the hero's wife has been killed in a road accident by a "drunken driver".
• In several books (most notably the Navarone books, Partisans, Circus) MacLean gives his usual cynical hero two assistants: a smaller man who is highly gifted with one particular weapon (knives, explosives), and a very large, immensely strong man who has intelligence equal to the protagonist, smokes foul-smelling cigars or cigarettes, and is often the hero's best friend.
• MacLean was known to reuse plot devices, characterizations, and even specific phrases. For example, the description "huddled shapelessness of the dead" occurs in some form in several stories.
• Clive Cussler plagiarized (or paid homage to) MacLean's Ice Station Zebra in his Raise the Titanic! and MacLean's The Secret Ways in his The Mediterranean Caper. Fans of other thriller authors, such as Len Deighton, Dale Brown, and Tom Clancy, will find plenty of foreshadowings of their favorite authors' work in MacLean's own novels.
• The cover of Alistair MacLean novel features in the Bollywood classic film Aradhana, during the scene of the classic song "Mere Sapno Ki Rani"

 References

• Lee, Robert A. Alistair MacLean: The Key is Fear. Borgo Press, 1976. ISBN 0-89370-203-X.
• Webster, Jack. Alistair MacLean: A Life. Chapmans Publishers, 1991. ISBN 1-85592-519-2. (Alternate title: Alistair MacLean: A Biography of a Master Storyteller.)
• Literary Encyclopedia entry
• Alistair MacLean at the Internet Movie Database
• Alistairmaclean.de Fan site
• Fan site

Ice Station Zebra
1965 UK paperback cover
Author	Alistair MacLean
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Thriller Novel
Publisher	Collins
Publication date	1963
Media type	print (hardcover)
Pages	276 pp.
OCLC	844681
Preceded by	The Satan Bug
Followed by	When Eight Bells Toll

Ice Station Zebra (ISBN 0-00-616141-3) is a 1963 thriller novel written by Scottish author Alistair MacLean. This was the last of MacLean's classic sequence of first person narratives which began with Night Without End, and represented a return to that earlier novel's Arctic setting. After completing this novel, whose plotline parallels real-life events during the Cold War, MacLean retired from writing for three years. In 1968 it was adapted into a film of the same name.

Plot summary

Drift Ice Station Zebra, a British meteorological station built on an ice floe in the Arctic Sea, has suffered a catastrophic oil fire; men have died and shelter and supplies have been destroyed. The survivors are holed up in one hut with little food and heat. If help does not reach them, they will quickly die.

The (fictional) American nuclear-powered submarine USS Dolphin is dispatched on a rescue mission. Just before it departs, the mysterious Dr. Carpenter, the narrator, is sent to accompany it. Carpenter claims that he is necessary as an expert in dealing with frostbite and other deep-cold medical conditions.

At first, the submarine's Captain Swanson is suspicious of Carpenter, even though he receives an order from Chief of Naval Operations of the US Navy instructing him to obey Carpenter's every command except where crew safety is at stake. Swanson tells Carpenter he is still inclined to refuse. Carpenter is thus forced to reveal that this is not simply a rescue mission; the station is actually a highly-equipped listening post, keeping watch for nuclear missile launches from the Soviet Union. Hearing this, Swanson allows Carpenter to come along.

Soon the Dolphin is under the Arctic ice pack, searching for a place to surface and attempt to contact Zebra, whose radio signals are becoming weaker by the hour. Eventually finding a place where the ice is thin enough to break through, the Dolphin establishes tenuous radio contact, and gets a bearing on their position. But Zebra is too far away to attempt to reach on foot, so the submarine re-submerges, hoping to get closer. Carpenter confides to the Captain that the commander of the station is his brother.

After a tense, desperate search, the Dolphin finds open water and surfaces just five miles from the station. Carpenter, Executive Officer Hansen, and two crewmen make the perilous journey through an Arctic storm on foot, taking with them as many supplies as they can. Zabrinski, one of the crewmen, breaks his ankle on the way. After a harrowing trek they reach Zebra. Devastation awaits them. Three of the eight huts and almost all supplies have been destroyed by a widespread oil fire. Eight men are dead - burnt to a crisp. Eleven men are alive, but barely. While the victims are being tended to, Carpenter does some investigating on his own.

Unable to make radio contact, Carpenter and Hansen leave Zabrinski and the other crewman to attend to the survivors. After nearly getting lost in the terrible storm of blowing ice, Carpenter and Hansen finally return to the Dolphin, bearing news of their findings, as well as the relatively thin ice nearer to Zebra. Dolphin submerges and heads for Zebra. The ice there is still too thick to break with the sub's sail, so Swanson decides to blow a hole in the ice with a torpedo. Unbeknownst to him, someone had tampered with the wiring of the indicators which indicated the open/close status of the outer tube doors. When the crew attempts to load a torpedo into one of the tubes, a torrent of water rushes through the inner door, killing an officer and sending Dolphin into a nearly catastrophic fall. Only by heroic measures is Dolphin able to save herself.

After successfully breaking through the ice with a torpedo, fired from an un-sabotaged tube, Dolphin finally emerges just two hundred feet from Zebra. The sick men are treated, but some of them are still too ill to be carried to the sub. Carpenter does some more investigating. He finds that the fire at Zebra was no accident; it was a cover to hide that three of the dead men, one of whom was his brother, were murdered. Carpenter already knows why; the only question is who? Swanson also has a look around and finds no trace of the sophisticated listening equipment Carpenter had claimed was Zebra's purpose — Carpenter had lied again. Meanwhile, Carpenter found a loaded gun in the petrol tank of a tractor, where the petrol would keep it from freezing, as well as food, batteries and a powerful radio hidden in the hut being used as a morgue.

Finally the survivors are all brought aboard, Zebra is abandoned, and Dolphin heads back, but not without several further incidents. The ship's doctor is knocked into a coma. Carpenter himself is severely hurt in another apparent accident. Then a fire breaks out in the engine room and the sub is forced to shut down its nuclear reactor. Without power for air purification or heating, Dolphin looks set to become a frozen tomb trapped under the ice pack. Only the ingenuity of Commander Swanson and the dedication of the crew saves the ship.

Carpenter announces that the fire was no accident. He reveals to the Captain that he is an MI6 officer. Carpenter's real mission is to retrieve photographic film from a reconnaissance satellite (see Corona) that has photographed every nuclear weapons installation in the U.S. The film, ejected from the satellite, had landed near Zebra. Carpenter's brother had been meant to retrieve it, but Russian agents killed him. The two Russian agents are amongst the survivors from Zebra. Carpenter finally reveals their motives, methods, and the men. The film is now in American hands, and the agents on their way to the gallows.

Noticeable humour

Dr. Benson, the ship's doctor, is assigned by Commander Swanson to show Dr. Carpenter around the Dolphin. Introducing Carpenter to the head cook of the ship, Benson refers to him as "my arch enemy," for he perpetually subverts Benson's lectures on healthy eating with hearty, tasty, and plentiful food.

While preparing to fire a torpedo at the ice cap, Hansen orders a crewman to check if there is water in the torpedo tube. Opening the test cock, he checks and reports to Hansen, "Clean as a whistle and dry as a bone." Hansen says resignedly to Dr. Carpenter, "That's not the way he was taught."

 Background and origin of plot

USS Skate

Corona spy satellite

The novel was influenced by the heightened atmosphere of the Cold War, with its escalating series of international crises such as the U-2 incident; West Berlin; unrest in Hungary, Indochina and Latin America; and the Cuban missile crisis.

The novel exploits contemporary fascination with the under-the-ice exploits of such American nuclear-powered submarines as Nautilus, Skate, Sargo and Seadragon. MacLean may have been anticipating the excitement of his British readers regarding the upcoming commissioning of the HMS Dreadnought, the Royal Navy's first nuclear submarine. Also, MacLean may have been influenced by press reports about the nuclear-powered submarine USS Skate visiting Ice Station Alpha, located on Ice Island T-3 in the Arctic, on 14 August 1958, as part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY).^[1]. It should be noted that, at the time that the novel was published, under-the-ice operations by U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarines were prohibited until SUBSAFE measures had been implementated following the loss of the USS Thresher.^[2]

Ice Station Zebra also uses the accelerating Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union as the backdrop for the novel, and may have been directly inspired by news accounts from April 17, 1959, about a missing experimental Corona satellite capsule (Discoverer ll) that inadvertently landed near Spitsbergen on April 13 and may have been recovered by Soviet agents.^[3][4] In 2006 the National Reconnaissance Office declassified information stating that "an individual formerly possessing CORONA access was the technical advisor to the movie" and admitted "the resemblance of the loss of the DISCOVERER II capsule, and its probable recovery by the Soviets" on Spitsbergen Island, to the book by Alistair MacLean.[1]

Finally, MacLean even mentions the newly-operational Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Lenin by involving the ship in an aborted attempt to reach the survivors at Drift Ice Station Zebra.

Film adaptation

The novel was later very loosely adapted into the 1968 John Sturges film of the same name starring Rock Hudson. The most obvious changes involved the names of the novel's characters:

• The nuclear submarine Dolphin became the USS Tigerfish (SSN-509).
• The British spy Dr. Carpenter was renamed David Jones, portrayed by Patrick McGoohan.
• Commander Swanson was changed to Commander Ferraday, portrayed by Hudson.

Additional characters were added, including a U.S. Marine platoon trained in Arctic warfare:

• Soviet defector Boris Vaslov, portrayed by Ernest Borgnine
• Marine Captain Leslie Anders, portrayed by Jim Brown
• 1st Lt. Russell Walker, portrayed by Tony Bill

Much of the novel's characterization involving the submarine's crew found was jettisoned in favor of these new cinematic creations. Also all characters from the Ice Station Zebra in novel were removed. They were claimed to have died in the fire, notably two main villains who had caused the fire in the first place. Also removed were all references to Dr. Carpenter's brother.

Beyond the name change, the film's submarine has a design similar to the first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, rather than the more streamlined, teardrop-shaped vessel, either the contemporaneous Skipjack or Permit design, that was described in the novel. In the movie, the fire on the drift Ice Station was explained away as accidental.

Unlike the film, the novel shows little overt Soviet interest in recovering the lost spy satellite other than a spy ship disguised as a fishing trawler waiting outside Holy Loch when the Tigerfish sets sail. The novel's climax of a fire onboard the submarine is replaced with the nearly fatal flooding of the forward torpedo room prior to the film's intermission. The film's new climax involves a superpower confrontation between Soviet paratroopers and the American marines at Ice Station Zebra itself, but concludes on a much more ambiguous note than the novel, reflecting the perceived thaw in the Cold War following the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Popular culture

The novel is referenced in "The Leadership Breakfast," the eleventh episode of the second season of The West Wing. In the opening scene, Josh and Sam are trying to make a fire in the Mural Room fireplace because the building's heat isn't working. As he's piling wood into the fireplace, Josh says, "It's like Ice Station Zebra in here."

The novel is parodied in the Sealab 2021 third season episode, "Frozen Dinner." The Sealab crew must rescue scientists aboard Ice Station Zebra, a research station on top of an ice flow. The ice flow has turned upside down and trapped the two men, while the Sealab crew tries to rescue them in a submarine. While the scientists immediately turn to cannibalism, the Sealab sub (led by a German crew resembling that from Das Boot) predictably fumbles the rescue.

 Notes

1. ^ Williams. Submarines Under Ice, p. 133 - 141
2. ^ Polmar and Moore. Cold War Submarines, p. 156
3. ^ Chronology of Spy Satellites @ Totse.com
4. ^ Taubman, Secret Empire, p. 287.

References

• Norman Polmar and K.J. Moore. Cold War Submarines: The Design and Construction of U.S. and Soviet Submarines (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, Inc., 2004) ISBN 1-57488-530-8
• Phil Taubman. Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America’s Space Espionage (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2003) ISBN 0684856999
• Marion D. Williams. Submarines Under Ice: The U.S. Navy's Polar Operations (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1998) ISBN 1-55750-943-3

External links

• Book review at Alistairmaclean.de (German)

v • d • e Works by Alistair MacLean   Novels: HMS Ulysses (1955) · The Guns of Navarone (1957) · South by Java Head (1957) · The Last Frontier (1959) · Night Without End (1959) · Fear Is the Key (1961) · The Dark Crusader (1961) · The Golden Rendezvous (1962) · The Satan Bug (1962) · Ice Station Zebra (1963) · When Eight Bells Toll (1966) · Where Eagles Dare (1967) · Force 10 From Navarone (1968) · Puppet on a Chain (1969) · Caravan to Vaccarès (1970) · Bear Island (1971) · The Way to Dusty Death (1973) · Breakheart Pass (1974) · Circus (1975) · The Golden Gate (1976) · Seawitch (1977) · Goodbye California (1978) · Athabasca (1980) · River of Death (1981) · Partisans (1982) · Floodgate (1983) · San Andreas (1984) · Santorini (1986)   Short story collections: The Lonely Sea (1985)   Non-fiction: All About Lawrence of Arabia (1962) · Alistair MacLean Introduces Scotland (1972) · Captain Cook (1972)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Station_Zebra_(novel)"

Categories: 1963 novels | Novels by Alistair MacLean | Spy novels | Submarine fiction | Arctic in fiction | Novels adapted into films

NOTE:  When Kent Steadman was still alive, we used to collaborate via IM on aol.com all the time.  It's pretty cool when I discover that we are still doing this after his death as well.  Thanks Kent!

Dee

Lake Vostok
When imaged from space by radar, Lake Vostok can be seen as a flat area within the ice sheet. (NASA GSFC)
Coordinates	77°0′S 105°0′E / 77°S 105°E / -77; 105Coordinates: 77°0′S 105°0′E / 77°S 105°E / -77; 105
Lake type	subglacial rift lake
Basin  countries	(Antarctica)
Max. length	250 km
Max. width	50 km
Surface area	15,690 km²
Average depth	344 m
Max. depth	1,000 m
Water volume	5,400 ± 1,600 km³
Residence time (of lake water)	1,000,000 yrs
Islands	1 (found May 2005)
Settlements	Vostok Station

Discovery

Radar imaging

Airborne ice-penetrating radar data first showed lakes beneath the Antarctic ice-sheet in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The existence of Lake Vostok was first noted in 1973 by scientists of the Scott Polar Research Institute,^[1] but not named by them.

Russian and British scientists delineated the lake in 1996 by integrating a variety of data, including airborne ice-penetrating radar imaging observations and spaceborne radar altimetry. It has been confirmed that the lake contains large amounts of liquid water under the more than three-kilometer thick icecap, promising to be the most unspoiled lake on Earth. Its water is very old, with a mean residence time in the order of one million years (as compared with six years for Lake Ontario, which is typical for lakes of that size).^[2]

Temperature

The average water temperature is around −3 °C (27 °F); it remains liquid below the normal freezing point because of high pressure from the weight of the ice above it. Geothermal heat from the Earth's interior warms the bottom of the lake. The ice sheet itself insulates the lake from cold temperatures on the surface.

 Ice core

Researchers working at Vostok Station produced one of the world's longest ice cores in 1998. A joint Russian, French, and U.S. team drilled and analyzed the core, which is 3,623 metres (11,890 ft) long. Ice samples from cores drilled close to the top of the lake have been analyzed to be as old as 420,000 years, suggesting that the lake has been sealed under the icecap for between 500,000 and more than a million years. Drilling of the core was deliberately halted roughly 100 metres (300 ft)^[3] above the suspected boundary where the ice sheet and the liquid waters of the lake are thought to meet. This was to prevent contamination of the lake from the 60 ton column of freon and aviation fuel Russian scientists filled it with to prevent it from freezing over.

From this core, specifically from ice that is thought to have formed from lake water freezing onto the base of the ice sheet, evidence has been found, in the form of microbes, to suggest that the lake water supports life. Scientists suggested 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.^[4]

 Environment

Ecosystems

Since Lake Vostok consists of two separate basins divided by a ridge, it has been suggested that the chemical and biological compositions of these two ecosystems are likely to be different.

 Pressure and oxygen

Lake Vostok is an oligotrophic extreme environment, one that is supersaturated with oxygen, with oxygen levels 50 times higher than those typically found in ordinary freshwater lakes on Earth. The sheer weight of the continental icecap sitting on top of Lake Vostok is believed to contribute to the high oxygen concentration. Besides dissolving in the water, oxygen and other gases are trapped in a type of structure called a clathrate. In clathrate structures, gases are enclosed in an icy cage and look like packed snow. These structures form at the high-pressure depths of Lake Vostok and would become unstable if brought to the surface.^[2]

Life

No other natural lake environment on Earth is as rich in oxygen and it is speculated that any organisms inhabiting the lake would have needed to evolve special adaptations to survive. These adaptations to an oxygen-rich environment might include high concentrations of protective enzymes.

Due to the lake's similarity to the Jupiter moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, any confirmation of life living in Lake Vostok would strengthen the prospect for the possible presence of life on Europa or Enceladus.^[5]

 Tidal forces

In April 2005, German, Russian, and Japanese researchers found that the lake has tides. Depending on the position of the Sun and the Moon, the surface of the lake rises between 1 and 2 cm. The researchers assume that the fluctuation of the lake surface has the effect of a pump that keeps the water circulating, which would be necessary for the survival of microorganisms if there are any.

Research

To probe, without contamination, the waters of Lake Vostok for life, plans were initiated in 2001 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.^[6][7]

In January 2006, Robin Bell and Michael Studinger, Geophysical researchers from Columbia University, announced in Geophysical Research Letters the discovery of two smaller lakes under the icecap, named 90 Degrees East and Sovetskaya.

It is also suspected that the Antarctic subglacial lakes may be connected by a network of subterranean rivers. CPOM glaciologists Duncan Wingham (University College, London) and Martin Siegert (University of Bristol, now University of Edinburgh) published in Nature in 2006 that many of the subglacial lakes of Antarctica are at least temporarily interconnected. Because of varying water pressure in individual lakes, large, sub-surface rivers may suddenly form and then force large amounts of water through the solid ice.^[2]

 See also

• Lakes of Antarctica
• List of Antarctic expeditions
• History of Antarctica

References

External links

• About Lake Vostok
• “Lake Vostok: A Curiosity or a Focus for Interdisciplinary Study?”
• “Miles Below Antarctic Ice, a Freshwater Lake May Harbor Ancient Life.” Robert Lee Hotz, The Los Angeles Times.
• BBC - The Lost World of Lake Vostok