Antarctica is
the only continent in the world that is well-suited for the practice of ice
science. People discovered this continent in the first half of the 19th century. Then, in
the second decade of the 20th century, it was possible to reach the
South Pole, located in the center of Antarctica. For the next 50 years, all activities
on this continent came to a halt due to the First and Second World Wars. Then,
in 1956, the two world
superpowers of the time, the United States and the Soviet Union, started research
work on the Antarctic continent again. In 1957, the two countries established their first
research stations on this continent. The American research station was named
the Scott Station, and the Soviets named their station the Vostok Ice Station.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the last decade of the last century,
the station is currently being operated under Russian control. This video has
been made to give you details about the Russian research station in Antarctica,
the Vostok Ice Station. The lowest temperature in the world was recorded at
this Vostok Station. Dear viewers, let's not delay any longer and get to know
the details of this research station called Vostok Station. The Vostok Ice
Station is located in the Princess Elizabeth Land area of East Antarctica.
This station is named after the first Russian ship to explore Antarctica. It is
located 1,000,300 kilometers or 808 miles east of the
geographic South Pole. This station is located near the South Geomagnetic Pole.
The southernmost point of the Earth's magnetic field intersects the surface at
this point. Located 11,500 feet or about three
and a half kilometers above the nearest sea level, this station is one of the
most remote research stations in Antarctica. The only permanent research
station south of this station is the US-run Emancipation Scott Station. The
Kullan Station established by China is located south of Vostok. But it is not a
permanent research station, meaning that people live there only during the
summer. About twenty people, including researchers and support staff, stay at
Vostok Station during the winter. There are a total of five buildings in this
station. These buildings contain various laboratories as well as separate rooms
for researchers to stay, eat, and relax. During the summer, aircraft are used
to supply supplies to the station. These aircraft arrive at Vostok from the
Russian research station Mirnyi Station located on the coast of the Antarctic
continent. The United States has recently established a temporary field camp
called East Camp next to the station. The Vostok Ice Station was established on
December 16, 1957. From then on, the research station was open
for 37 years until January 1994.
The
station was closed for ten months from February to November 1994.
After
that, the station has been open again for the past 26 years. After just two
years of establishment, in 1959, two scientists at this station were
playing chess. The scientist who lost the game, unable to bear the shame of
defeat, attacked his rival scientist. The scientist who won the chess game was
killed by the attacker's axe. This is probably the only murder case on the
Antarctic continent so far. Since then, chess has been banned in Russian
research stations. Just below this Vostok Ice Station, there is a huge lake
under the entire ice.In 1974, a group of British scientists conducted
research on the ice beneath this station. Their ice-penetrating radar detected
the existence of liquid under the ice about four kilometers thick. From this,
British scientists assumed that there could be a lake under this glacier.
Finally, in 1991, their idea was proven true. That year, a researcher from
University College London used a satellite called ERS One to prove the
existence of the lake. That researcher, named Jay Fridley, worked at the
institution's Mullard Space Science Laboratory. Jay published his research
paper in the Journal of Glaciology in 1993. This lake was named Vostok Lake. It
is the largest of the 140 subglacial lakes located in the Antarctic continent.
The lake located under the glacier is called subglacial. Lake Vostok is about
240 kilometers (150 miles) long and about 50 kilometers (31 miles) wide,
covering an area of 14,000 square kilometers (5,400 square miles). Its
maximum depth is 1,800 feet. In total, the volume of water in Lake Vostok is
about 3,000 cubic miles (12,500 cubic kilometers). According to research by
scientists, the water in the subglacial lake accumulated between two and
300,000 years ago. Due to its geographical location, the climate of Vostok
Station is both cold and dry. As I have already mentioned, the lowest
temperature ever recorded on Earth was measured at this station.
This
temperature was recorded on July 21, 1983. On that day, the temperature in the
area adjacent to Vostok Station was -89.2 degrees Celsius, and the highest
temperature recorded at this station so far was on January 5, 1959. On that
day, the temperature was -14 degrees Celsius. In addition, the area adjacent to
Vostok receives an average of only 22 millimeters or 0.87 inches of snow per
year. Due to this, the entire Antarctic continent has been called the driest
cold desert in the world. On average, there are 26 days of snowfall around the
station every year. You will be surprised to know that although the temperature
here is well below zero degrees Celsius throughout the year, Vostok Station
enjoys much more sunlight than any other place in the world. Another surprising
thing is that this station remains in complete darkness for four months from
May to August. Because at that time, the Antarctic sun is at the horizon. It
doesn't rise above the line. But you can understand that during the summer,
that deficit is largely compensated. Because from October to March, there is
sunlight here for about 24 hours a day. This Vostok Station holds the record
for enjoying the most sunlight in any month of the calendar. Here, the sun is
in the sky for about 23 hours a day every year in December. This means that
Vostok is illuminated by sunlight for about 710 hours in total during this
month. Among the various research projects of the Vostok Ice Station, the
drilling of the ice core is particularly notable. In this project, a long
cylinder of ice is excavated from a glacier located near the research station.
Then, the relative amounts of various isotopes of carbon and oxygen in the air
trapped inside the ice of that cylinder are determined. Using this information,
an idea of the Earth's climate in prehistoric times can be obtained. The
project was first launched in the 1970s under the leadership of the Soviet
Union. In the first phase, researchers were able to reach depths of 500 to 950
meters or 1406 to 3120 feet in the ice. Then, three more drilling projects were
implemented in 1984, 1990, and 1993. The depths of the wells drilled in these
three projects were 2202 meters, 2546 meters, and 2755 meters, respectively.
Finally, in 1996, French and Russian scientists jointly drilled a new well. Its
depth was 3623 meters. Then, at the request of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic
Research, the researchers withdrew from the decision to increase the depth of
this well. The committee feared that if the depth of the well was increased
further, the purity of Lake Vostok could be lost. It has been possible to know
what the climate of the world was like for the last 400,000 years from the ice core
used in the latest project. 42 countries of the world have established about a
hundred research stations in different parts of the Antarctic continent. Under
the Antarctic Treaty signed in 1959, no pets can be kept at the stations.
However, this law was broken only for a few days at the Vostok Station. In the
summer of 2001, a fly appeared at the station. The fly probably got there on
the luggage of a researcher or support worker. After sensing the fly's
presence, the researchers cared for it as if it were their pet for a few days.
Unfortunately, the cook at the station found a fly in her kitchen one day. To
maintain the cleanliness of the kitchen, the cook killed the fly. This is the
first and last case of petting an animal in Antarctica so far.
Video link- https://youtu.be/R_vydZcZfzY
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