1. * An inspection or investigation of an area, often used for making maps.
2. * Causing harmful effect and damaging the purity of something.
3. * A machine that is automatically programmed to perform a number of tasks,
often dangerous or boring ones.
4. * A way of using radio signals on a screen to look at things that cannot
normally be seen.
5. * Very small organisms that live in the air, water, soil, plants and animals.
6. * A settlement in a distant part of a country, used for trading, military or
scientific purposes.
7. * A tool or machine used to make holes in something
Lake Vostok lies about 1,500 kilometres east of the South Pole, near Russia’s Vostok station, a scientific outpost* (A) that has experienced the lowest temperatures ever recorded on Earth: minus 89.2̊ C.
What is unique about this lake is that nobody has ever set foot on its shores. Like the oceans of the planet Jupiter’s moon Europa, it is completely covered by ice.
The first person to realise the existence of Lake Vostok was the Russian geographer, Andrei Kapitsa. While flying over this frozen region in 1960, he noticed an unusually flat area and thought there might be a lake under the ice. However, his suggestions were not taken seriously at the time and it was only after a British-led survey* (B) used radar* (C), that it became clear that there was water there.
Lake Vostok’s ice covering is 4 kilometres thick, its water is up to 500 metres deep and it has been completely covered in this way for at least one million years. In 1988 special hot-water drills* (D) were used to get through the ice to within 120 metres of the lake. Work then stopped to avoid pollution* (E). Samples were taken from the ice and found to contain living bacteria* (F) and even some grains.
Scientists now want to send a robot*(G) down to explore and search for signs of life. If life can exist in this lake covered by ice, maybe it can also exist in the icecovered oceans of Jupiter’s moon.