Space program

In addition to the space program, there is also an Antarctic program. The study of Antarctica is very important also because this continent has a huge impact on us, even if we do not notice and do not know. The simplest and most understandable example of influence is sea level. There is so much ice in Antarctica that if it melts, the level will rise by 65 meters - this is a colossal amount. But it melts, and the process goes on with terrible force.

How exactly is the evidence obtained that Antarctica is melting through human fault?
There are many ways to study the climate and the reasons for its change, and the study of ice is one of them. You can also study the bottom sediments of lakes and seas, tree rings - in general, any object in which there is a continuous accumulation of material - and find out what the Earth's climate was like in the past, before instrumental observations began. In Antarctica, snow and ice accumulate continuously - even in summer at Vostok station the average temperature is -35 degrees. It is clear that there is no talk of melting. You can drill ice and study the conditions of its origin, age, isotopic properties, chemical composition, amount of dust, including gas content.

This ice contains air bubbles, which contain samples of the ancient atmosphere with an unchanged composition. That is, we directly measure how much carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere in the past. We have such a series for 800 thousand years. Then we compare the data from the observatories with the information on ice cores - they coincide well in the intersection zone. Therefore, we know for sure that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is now higher than the normal level and this excess gas was taken by burning fossil fuels. If it came from volcanic eruptions, it would have a different isotopic composition. These are two scientific facts that you can't do anything about.

From the Editor: As well as the fact that the existing institutions and support measures are not conducive to the early transition to nature-like technologies. A sad demonstration of this is the artificial decrease in the efficiency of the work of scientists and researchers as a result of the lack of conditions for their work and unnecessary workload, as well as the lack of funding for civil science projects. In this case, the example of scientists and specialists who are ready to drill the oldest ice on Earth, one and a half million years old, is appropriate. And if they had the opportunity, they would do it in a relatively short period of time. And this is a huge body of knowledge about our planet and its history. And we observe this situation with the state support of the entire civil science. Other convincing demonstrations of this can be found in the biography of Nikola Tesla, or in Thorstein Veblen's book Engineers and the Price System (1921).

It is not only medicine or life support systems that are being tested and run in here. This is also necessary for fundamental science.

This tells us about our planet. In addition, Lake Vostok (located under the ice under the Vostok station) is the closest terrestrial analogue of the subglacial oceans that exist on other planets (in the Solar System: Europa - the satellite of Jupiter, Enceladus - the satellite of Saturn).

In the very near future, people will fly on expeditions to various planets, drill ice, study water, bacteria, and life. And you have to start with something here, on our Earth. And Lake Vostok is similar in terms of conditions, inaccessibility, and technical problems that we face. And if life exists in this lake, it means that it can adapt to such unusual conditions - and this increases the chances that life exists on other planets. From this point of view, it is interesting.


For reference:
For more than 40 years, Russian specialists have been conducting research here on hydrocarbon and mineral raw materials, drinking water reserves; carry out aero-meteorological, actinometric, geophysical and glaciological observations, as well as special medical research; are engaged in the study of climate change, the study of the "ozone hole", the problems of rising water levels in the oceans, etc.
Here, in the mid-1990s, as a result of drilling of glacial deposits (first with thermal drilling shells, and then with electromechanical shells on a carrying cable), the joint efforts of the drilling teams of the Leningrad Mining Institute and the AARI discovered the relict Lake Vostok (the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica). The lake is located under an ice sheet about 4000 m thick and measures approximately 250 × 50 km. The estimated area is 15.5 thousand km². The depth is more than 1200 m. Projects for the survey of the lake are now being developed. Source