The announced research about high oxygen levels in Lake Vostok I was referring to got clipped. Here it is:

Andrew Yee wrote in message ... > Kathleen Burton > NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. August 11, 2003 > Phone: 650/604-1731 or 604-9000 > Email: Kathleen.M.Bur...@nasa.gov > RELEASE: 03-57AR > RESEARCHERS FIND ANTARCTIC LAKE WATER WILL FIZZ LIKE A SODA > Water released from Lake Vostok, deep beneath the south polar ice > sheet, could gush like a popped can of soda if not contained, opening > the lake to possible contamination and posing a potential health > hazard to NASA and university researchers. > A team of scientists that recently investigated the levels of > dissolved gases in the remote Antarctic lake found the concentrations > of gas in the lake water were much higher than expected, measuring > 2.65 quarts (2.5 liters) of nitrogen and oxygen per 2.2 pounds (1 > kilogram) of water. According to scientists, this high ratio of > gases trapped under the ice will cause a gas-driven "fizz" when the > water is released. > "Our research suggests that U.S. and Russian teams studying the lake > should be careful when drilling because high gas concentrations could > make the water unstable and potentially dangerous," said Dr. Chris > McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. > McKay is lead author of a paper on the topic published in the July > issue of the 'Geophysical Research Letters' journal. > "We need to consider the implications of the supercharged water > very carefully before we enter this lake," said Dr. Peter Doran, a > co-author and associate professor of Earth and Environmental > Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. > Lake Vostok is a rich research site for astrobiologists, because it > is thought to contain microorganisms living under its thick ice > cover, an environment that may be analogous to Jupiter's moon, > Europa. Europa contains vast oceans trapped under a thick layer of > ice. Russian teams are planning to drill into Lake Vostok's 2.48 mile > (four kilometer) ice cover in the near future, and an international > plan calls for sample return in less than a decade. > An important implication of this finding is that scientists expect > oxygen levels in the lake water to be 50 times higher than the oxygen > levels in ordinary freshwater lakes on Earth. "Lake Vostok is an > extreme environment, one that is supersaturated with oxygen," noted > McKay. "No other natural lake environment on Earth has this much > oxygen." > The research also suggests that organisms living in Lake Vostok may > have had to evolve special adaptions, such as high concentrations of > protective enzymes, in order to survive the lake's oxygen-rich > environment, the researchers say. Such defense mechanisms may > also protect life in Lake Vostok from oxygen radicals, the dangerous > byproducts of oxygen breakdown that cause cell and DNA damage. > This process may be similar to that of organisms that scientists > theorize may once have lived on Europa, whose ice layer and > atmosphere are thought to contain radiation-produced radicals > and oxygen. > "We expect to find that the organisms in Lake Vostok are capable of > overcoming very high oxygen stress," said co-author Dr. John Priscu, > a geo-biologist at Montana State University in Bozeman. Priscu > heads an international group of researchers that will deploy a > remote observatory at Lake Vostok within three years and return > samples within 10 years. > The team also determined the ratios of gases in the lake. The > scientists discovered that the air-gas mixture there, besides > dissolving in the water, also is trapped in a type of structure > called a 'clathrate'. In clathrate structures, gases are enclosed in > an icy cage and look like packed snow. These structures form at the > high pressure depths of Lake Vostok and would be unstable if brought > to the surface. > Lake Vostok is located 2.48 miles (four kilometers) beneath the East > Antarctic Ice Sheet. The lake, and more than 70 other lakes deep > beneath the polar plateau, are part of a large, sub-glacial > environment that has been isolated from the atmosphere since > Antarctica became covered with ice more than 15 million years ago. > Scientists theorize that Lake Vostok probably existed before > Antarctica became ice covered, and may contain evidence of > conditions on the continent when the local climate was subtropical. > For images and further information about plans to return research > samples from Lake Vostok, go to: > http://salegos-scar.montana.edu/ > The paper's authors also include K.P. Hand, Stanford University and > Dr. D.T. Andersen, the SETI Institute. > The research was jointly funded by NASA and the National Science > Foundation.