Lake Vostok was the last major geographical discovery on Earth, and it was made by Russia. The existence of the lake under four kilometers of ice was proven in 1994. In February 2012, for the first time in human history, as a result of drilling into the ice sheet, Russian scientists reached the surface of the subglacial Lake Vostok at a depth of 3769.3 meters. The Russian research station “Vostok” is one of the most modern and well-equipped in Antarctica, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the ceremony of putting into trial operation a new wintering complex.
“Until recently, the conditions at the station were very modest. Ascetic, one might say. They were far from the modern level and comfort. The last major renovation took place here more than 40 years ago. The first buildings, as far as I know, have long been buried under the snow. Even a little more later ones are partially or completely immersed in snow,” the head of the Russian Federation described the situation.
However, he continued, the situation has now changed. “The capabilities of the station have increased by an order of magnitude. Today it is one of the most modern and well-equipped in Antarctica,” Putin noted. The President noted that the station has many tasks, including monitoring solar activity and other changes in space weather that affect both technology and humans.
The Russian Antarctic station “Vostok”, which received a new wintering complex, will become an open platform for the work of researchers from many countries of the world. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated this: “The new station will strengthen cooperation between scientists from different countries, will become an open platform for solving pressing problems in the field of studying nature and the environment and, of course, for promoting joint scientific innovation programs within the framework of the Union State of Russia and Belarus”.
The head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, Alexander Kozlov, previously said that Russian scientists are preparing to penetrate into the subglacial Lake Vostok and study it, for this they plan to “include funding in the federal budget, literally in May we will submit this application for the next three years and for future years.” . The project is estimated to “take 18 years,” he said. In February 2022, Russian polar explorers extracted an ice core more than 1 million years old from a glacier in Antarctica; it should “tell” about climate changes on Earth since the time of mammoths. The project is being implemented as part of the study of Lake Vostok and the Earth’s paleoclimate in the area of the Russian Antarctic station “Vostok”.
Vostok station was founded in 1957, reconstructed twice – in 1974 and 1982 – and mothballed three times. Before the opening of the new complex, it did not meet modern operating requirements; its deterioration exceeded 90%. In 2012, Russian scientists made a discovery, discovering a unique relict lake under the ice, named Vostok in honor of the station. The initiative to build a new complex in 2015 was made by the Chairman of the Board of Novatek, Leonid Mikhelson.
