S. R. Verkulich, L. M. Savatyugin, N. I. Vasiliev, B. B. Kudryashov, N. I. Barkov, I. N. Kuzmina. A problem of the ecologically safe penetration into the sub-glacial Vostok lake (Antarctica)

The technology of ecologically safe penetration and pilot sampling of the sub-glacial Vostok lake, created in the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute and St. Petersburg Mining Institute, is presented.

It is proposed that by maintaining the hydrostatic pressure at the 5G-1 hole bottom slightly lower than pressure of the overburden ice it would be possible to allow lake water to enter the hole and to freeze in it at a certain distance from the bottom after the drill reaches the ice - lake water interface. Then the re-frozen ice in the bottom part of the hole could be cored again in order to obtain lake water samples. The new thermal drill TBPO-132 and drilling operations which are necessary for the proposed method realization, are described.