Two Large Lakes Discovered Under Antarctic Ice

Two Large Lakes Discovered Under Antarctic Ice: "Two Large Lakes Discovered Under Antarctic Ice
By LiveScience Staff

posted: 25 January 2006
09:10 pm ET


Antarctica has at least 145 small lakes buried under its ice and one large one called Vostok. Now scientists have found the second and third largest known bodies of subsurface liquid water there.

Exotic ecosystems frozen in time may thrive in the lakes, untouched for 35 million years, scientists said.

Vostok has a surface area of 5,400 square miles. One of the newfound lakes measures 770 square miles in size, or roughly the size of Rhode Island. The other is about 620 square miles."