Nearly four kilometres beneath the Antarctic ice, Russian scientists in 2012 drilled into a hidden lake the size of Lake Ontario that had been sealed away for at least 15 million years — and when the drill broke through, the pressure was so great that the ancient lake water shot up the borehole and froze in place, freezing itself before anyone could touch it.

Imagine drilling through ice for 23 years to reach a lake nobody had ever seen, in the coldest place on Earth, in a research station that holds the world record for the lowest temperature ever recorded — and then, on the day you finally break through, having the lake itself shoot up the borehole to [...] The post Nearly four kilometres beneath the Antarctic ice, Russian scientists in 2012 drilled into a hidden lake the size of Lake Ontario that had been sealed away for at least 15 million years