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Lake Vostok Reached

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Re: Lake Vostok Reached

#21

Post by kaybe »

sp332 wrote: post #8
ed209 wrote: post #6

why didn't they use a some sort of steam probe? Or heated probe?

A cubic meter of water is 1 metric ton. Assuming the ice is half that dense (from being compressed under all the other ice), it would take about 150 megajoules of heat to melt each cubic meter of ice. And that's just for the phase change - that doesn't include warming the ice up to 0C first.

If you need to warm it up depends on the depth - at the bottom the ice is not much colder than 0°C due to geothermal flux. So if, say, you only used the hot water method for the lowest part, the amount of heat for warming can easily be neglected.

Re: Lake Vostok Reached

#22

Post by kaybe »

sp332 wrote: post #8
ed209 wrote: post #6

why didn't they use a some sort of steam probe? Or heated probe?

A cubic meter of water is 1 metric ton. Assuming the ice is half that dense (from being compressed under all the other ice), it would take about 150 megajoules of heat to melt each cubic meter of ice. And that's just for the phase change - that doesn't include warming the ice up to 0C first.

If you need to warm it up depends on the depth - at the bottom the ice is not much colder than 0°C due to geothermal flux. (That's why the lake is there too.) So if, say, you only used the hot water method for the lowest part, the amount of heat for warming can easily be neglected.

Re: Lake Vostok Reached

#23

Post by ctkrohn »

Jun8 wrote: post #20

I can't believe all the comments on this are so mundane, each time I hear news about Lake Vostok, I waste 10-15mins daydreaming about the different, totally believable (compared to some of the stuff we're seeing, e.g. Inception ) screenplays one can conjure. 1) Government conspiracy theory : There are rumors that Nazis had a secret base in the Arctic near Lake Vostok ( http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/worl…

Believe it or not, there's a novel that combines pretty much all these things: Charles Stross's "The Atrocity Archives." If you're into sci-fi, you need to check this out. It's a bizarre but hilarious mashup of James Bond, Slashdot, Office Space, and H. P. Lovecraft.

Re: Lake Vostok Reached

#24

Post by jimminy »

Jun8 wrote: post #20

I can't believe all the comments on this are so mundane, each time I hear news about Lake Vostok, I waste 10-15mins daydreaming about the different, totally believable (compared to some of the stuff we're seeing, e.g. Inception ) screenplays one can conjure. 1) Government conspiracy theory : There are rumors that Nazis had a secret base in the Arctic near Lake Vostok ( http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/worl…

The combination of 1 and 3 can be found in 'The Illuminatus! Trilogy'[1]. Lake Vostok isn't involved in the story, but there is a portion based on the same rumors of the Nazi secret base. The current time period is set about 40 years ago.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy

Re: Lake Vostok Reached

#25

Post by Symmetry »

Jun8 wrote: post #20

I can't believe all the comments on this are so mundane, each time I hear news about Lake Vostok, I waste 10-15mins daydreaming about the different, totally believable (compared to some of the stuff we're seeing, e.g. Inception ) screenplays one can conjure. 1) Government conspiracy theory : There are rumors that Nazis had a secret base in the Arctic near Lake Vostok ( http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/worl…

As to #3, I'm afraid someone has beaten you: http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/vault/420/

Re: Lake Vostok Reached

#26

Post by nitrogen »

Jun8 wrote: post #20

I can't believe all the comments on this are so mundane, each time I hear news about Lake Vostok, I waste 10-15mins daydreaming about the different, totally believable (compared to some of the stuff we're seeing, e.g. Inception ) screenplays one can conjure. 1) Government conspiracy theory : There are rumors that Nazis had a secret base in the Arctic near Lake Vostok ( http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/worl…

Stargate Atlantis (plus an episode in Stargate SG-1) touches on #2 and #3.

Re: Lake Vostok Reached

#27

Post by pavel_lishin »

ctkrohn wrote: post #23
Jun8 wrote: post #20

I can't believe all the comments on this are so mundane, each time I hear news about Lake Vostok, I waste 10-15mins daydreaming about the different, totally believable (compared to some of the stuff we're seeing, e.g. Inception ) screenplays one can conjure. 1) Government conspiracy theory : There are rumors that Nazis had a secret base in the Arctic near Lake Vostok ( http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/worl…

Believe it or not, there's a novel that combines pretty much all these things: Charles Stross's "The Atrocity Archives." If you're into sci-fi, you need to check this out. It's a bizarre but hilarious mashup of James Bond, Slashdot, Office Space, and H. P. Lovecraft.

I would actually recommend A Colder War, which actually mentions a subterranean lake, and is also available to read online for free: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm

Re: Lake Vostok Reached

#28

Post by pavel_lishin »

Jun8 wrote: post #20

I can't believe all the comments on this are so mundane, each time I hear news about Lake Vostok, I waste 10-15mins daydreaming about the different, totally believable (compared to some of the stuff we're seeing, e.g. Inception ) screenplays one can conjure. 1) Government conspiracy theory : There are rumors that Nazis had a secret base in the Arctic near Lake Vostok ( http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/worl…

> There are rumors that Nazis had a secret base

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Sky

Re: Lake Vostok Reached

#29

Post by arethuza »

Jun8 wrote: post #20

I can't believe all the comments on this are so mundane, each time I hear news about Lake Vostok, I waste 10-15mins daydreaming about the different, totally believable (compared to some of the stuff we're seeing, e.g. Inception ) screenplays one can conjure. 1) Government conspiracy theory : There are rumors that Nazis had a secret base in the Arctic near Lake Vostok ( http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/worl…

"People laughed at Lovecraft"

Really?

Re: Lake Vostok Reached

#30

Post by EvanKelly »

Jun8 wrote: post #20

I can't believe all the comments on this are so mundane, each time I hear news about Lake Vostok, I waste 10-15mins daydreaming about the different, totally believable (compared to some of the stuff we're seeing, e.g. Inception ) screenplays one can conjure. 1) Government conspiracy theory : There are rumors that Nazis had a secret base in the Arctic near Lake Vostok ( http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/worl…

Ok, admit it, #2 is simply Alien vs Predator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_vs._Predator_(film)#Plot)
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