Antarctica’s Lake Vostok has been covered with miles of ice for 20 million years. Now, just as it’s on the verge of being breached, something has gone wrong. The team of Russian scientists behind the operation has disappeared, vanishing into thin air.

Lake Vostok & the Missing Russian Team?

Eight days have gone by without radio contact and now, time is drawing thin. On February 6, temperatures around Lake Vostok are expected to drop an astonishing 40 degrees centigrade. Researchers are optimistic the Russian team is merely experiencing poor cellular reception or perhaps has already packed up and left for home. On a darker level, a drilling accident also seems plausible.

“The lake is known to have quite a bit of gas in it, like a carbonated soda, which could lead to a catastrophic geyser shooting up up out of the borehole when the drill finally hits water. If that happened, the lake could lose a quarter of its water and the weather above Antarctica could be altered, due to the sudden influx of water vapor into the air.” ~ Discover Magazine, 80 Beats Blog

Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis

So, what happened to the Russian team? Nothing at all? A drilling accident at Lake Vostok? An ancient dinosaur rising from the depths? The unleashing of a vicious plague? (Well, okay those last two seem pretty unlikely…). Here’s more on the mystery of Lake Vostok from Fox News:

The world holds its breath, hoping for the best after six days of radio silence from Antarctica — where a team of Russian scientists is racing the clock and the oncoming winter to dig to an alien lake far beneath the ice.

The team from Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) have been drilling for weeks in an effort to reach isolated Lake Vostok, a vast, dark body of water hidden 13,000 ft. below the surface of the icy continent. Lake Vostok hasn’t been exposed to air in more than 20 million years.

The team’s last contact with colleagues in the unfrozen world was six long days ago, and scientists from around the globe are unsure of the fate of the mission — and the scientists themselves — as Antarctica’s killing winter draws near…

(See the rest on Lake Vostok at Fox News)