MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Antarctica’s Lake Vostok keeps its secret sealed for another year

The Russian team was 30 metres short of its goal

A Russian team drilling toward Lake Vostok, a pristine freshwater lake buried 3,750 meters under the Antarctic ice had to conclude its task and will have to wait for the next season to finish off the job.

The director of Russia's Antarctic program, Valery Lukin said that drilling at Antarctica's Lake Vostok stopped on Feb. 5 at a depth of 3,720.47 meters. The operation had to be halted so that the research team could make it off the ice and onto the last flight before the beginning of the Antarctic winter season.

The drilling team left by aircraft on Feb. 6, and will have to wait until the next austral summer begins in December to try again. The Voice of Russia reported all the team is travelling on board a Russian ship to Cape Town and are expected home on Sunday.

News reports over the weekend said the Russians were poised to breach the lake, but Lukin was sceptical the team could finish. Lukin had previously stated that the drilling team had planned to keep operating and removing ice cores until they had to leave Antarctica on the last flight out before winter.

The scientists were attempting to drill through the ice to the lake's surface before the summer ended. The goal of the drilling is to remove lake water samples and analyze them for genetic evidence of life.

Lake Vostok has been undisturbed for 15 million years. It's a cold, dark place with virtually no nutrients or organic carbon, similar to the expected environment on Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Some think the lake may hold micro-organisms in the sediment or bedrock, a discovery that would boost hopes that a similar find could be made on Europa.