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MOSCOW, January 28 The discovery of Lake Vostok under the ice of Antarctica by Russian polar explorers is the latest major geographical discovery, scientists compare it to the “lunar race,” said the head of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, Alexander Kozlov.
“Lake (Vostok) was the last major geographical discovery on Earth, and it was made by Russia. Our colleagues and scientists compare it to the “lunar race,” Kozlov said at the ceremony of putting into trial operation the new wintering complex of the Vostok station.
According to him, Russian scientists are now preparing to penetrate the reservoir and study it.
“We plan to include funding in the federal budget; literally in May we will submit this application for the next three years and for future years, because the project, according to our estimates, will last 18 years,” Kozlov said.
In February 2022, Russian polar explorers extracted an ice core more than 1 million years old from a glacier in Antarctica; it should “tell” about climate changes on Earth since the time of mammoths. The project is being implemented as part of the study of Lake Vostok and the Earth's paleoclimate in the area of the Russian Antarctic station «Vostok».
The existence of the lake under four kilometers of ice was proven in 1994. In February 2012, for the first time in the history of mankind, as a result of drilling the ice sheet, Russian scientists reached the surface of the subglacial Lake Vostok at a depth of 3769.3 meters.