Hypothesis of Tectonic Preglacial Genesis of the Basin and Water Body of Antarctica’s Lake Vostok

A brief history of the last major geographical discovery of the 20th century—subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica—is considered. The contribution of Russian and British scientists to this milestone event is analyzed. The article estimates its scientific importance and the need to study the unknown hydrological object, which is located under a glacial strata that is more than 3700 m in thickness, and the habitat of microbial variety that exists under the conditions of chemosynthesis, as well as the need to test scientific and engineering technologies for space projects in the search for life. It is indicated that the Antarctic community has approved Russia’s comprehensive environmental evaluation of environmental effects of the project for unsealing the glacier above Lake Vostok. The role of subglacial lakes in Antarctica’s hydrology is determined, and the hypotheses of their origin are considered: the possibility of melting of the lower surface of the glacier and the tectonic formation of lacustrine valleys and water in them before the glaciation of the continent. Based on the results of paleotectonic studies in Antarctica and India and taking into consideration the analysis of the size and topography of the Lake Vostok valley, it is concluded that it has a rift-related origin. This geological process is characteristic of the period of splitting of the Gondwana supercontinent that began 130‒140 million years ago. It is evidence of the high likelihood that the water body of Lake Vostok came into existence prior to Antarctica’s drift toward the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. It is concluded that Lake Vostok had appeared long before the beginning of the glaciation of Antarctica 35‒40 million years ago and, accordingly, that the age of strata of water and bottom sediments of Lake Vostok is much more ancient than the age of the glacier located above it. The results indicate that a scientific study of this lake has a more promising outlook than the search for the earth’s most ancient ice, which has a maximum supposed age of only up to 1.5 million years.