A group of Russian scientists in search of a frozen-over lake bed in Antarctica have seemingly gone missing, and the group's colleagues are extremely concerned over their safety and well-being.
It all seems eerily like something out of the classic science fiction film The Thing, about an Arctic research crew terrorized by an alien force. "No word from the ice for 5 days," Dr. John Priscu professor of Ecology at Montana State University told the press on Thursday. The research team from Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Institute (AARI) have been drilling for the past several months in an effort to reach isolated Lake Vostok, a vast, dark body of water hidden 13,000 ft. below the ice sheet's surface. The lake hasn't been exposed to air in more than 20 million years.
The sudden disappearance couldn't come at a worse time, as the crew is only a mere forty or so feet away from drilling down to the surface of the frozen lake, where core ice samples are to be taken for study. The studies should help scientists and climatologists have a better understanding of the catastrophic climate cycles that have gripped our planet since the beginning of time.
The crew's American colleagues are concerned, as the group only have a window of a few weeks to prepare their camp site for the upcoming southern hemisphere winter. Here's hoping the Russian research crew pop back up online soon with stories about a five-day vodka-fueled bender...
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