I first met Igor Zotikov in Cambridge, England, during a 1999 meeting on Antarctic sub-glacial lakes. After spending several afternoons with him in working group sessions, it was clear that he possessed a wealth of information on the history of exploration at Vostok Station that had never been documented. Being located at the Pole of Inaccessibility, having the lowest documented temperature on Earth (−89.2°C), and being the site of one of the deepest ice cores on our planet have made Vostok Station the centre of much lore. Beyond these features, Vostok Station was serendipitously located over the largest sub-glacial lake yet discovered. At more than 14,000 km2 in surface area, 800 m in depth, and with a volume of near 5400 km3, it is among the largest lakes on Earth. Despite these superlatives, the lake has yet to be sampled directly, owing to the logistics involved with penetrating the nearly 4 km of glacial ice that overlies it. Since the seminal publication that formalised the presence of a giant lake beneath the station by Kapitsa and others (1996), numerous myths have been circulated about strange life within the lake. A simple search of ‘Lake Vostok’ on the internet reveals sites with such titles as ‘Does Lake Vostok Harbor the Fourth Life,’ ‘Raiders of the Lost Lake,’ ‘The Lost City of Atlantis,’ and ‘The Inner Guide to Mortality.’ As drillers and scientists from the Russian Antarctic Expedition continue their efforts to penetrate the lake, these myths continue to escalate, along with a global concern for environmental and scientific stewardship. As convener of an international group of experts that has focused on promoting sub-glacial lake science (http://scarsale.tamu.edu/), I have been contacted by numerous scientists concerned about possible contamination of Lake Vostok and regarding proposals to maintain it as one of the last pristine bastions on our planet. Clearly, it is important that the history of this fascinating area be put forth for others to appreciate the hardships and dedication required to work in this environment and to highlight the engineering and scientific achievements that have been reached.
I found this book to contain a fascinating account of the early years of research at Vostok Station by the Russian Antarctic Expedition (formerly the Soviet Antarctica Expedition). Dr Zotikov tells his story in a colourful manner and highlights the main characters that have moved the drilling and science efforts ahead. Importantly, he describes results published in many hard-to-obtain Russian journals that are virtually inaccessible to all but those scientists versed in the language (I counted at least 20 references published in Russian). The aim of this book, as stated by the author is to ‘collate material about Lake Vostok and to organize and synthesize it to establish its complete geographical picture.’ This book fulfills this aim in a popular vein and keeps the reader interested by unfolding drama after drama, all of which makes it very readable.
The book is laid out in 11 chapters and covers topics such as glaciology, biology, and planetology. Each of these themes is cast in the context of the problems that had to be resolved to obtain the data and to make believers of other scientists. The first chapter presents a general overview of events leading to and surrounding the 20 June 1996 cover article in the journal Nature that described Lake Vostok as a ‘Giant lake beneath the Antarctic ice.’ The chapter describes the establishment of the Russian station in 1956, which was named Vostok – which means ‘east’ in Russian – after one of the ships of Fabian von Bellingshausen's Russian Antarctic Expedition in 1820. This chapter also elaborates on lore surrounding the lake and provides a background on its interest as an analogue of extraterrestrial sub-ice oceans on such worlds as Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter thought to harbor a sub-ice world of liquid water driven by tidal forces of Jupiter itself. Chap-ter 2 provides an interesting review of the Russian litera-ture revolving around Vostok Station and describes prominent scientists such as Zubov, Robin, and Treshnikov, who played critical roles in ice thickness, radio-echo sounding of the ice sheet, and the selection of the location of Vostok Station. Chapters 3 to 6 provide a historical perspective leading up to the conclusion that a giant sub-glacial cavity containing a giant liquid water lake does exist beneath Vostok Station. In doing so, they highlight Kapitsa's role in interpreting seismograms taken from above the lake and the technology used by scientists to conclude that there is indeed a lake beneath the ice sheet.
Chapter 7 provides an excellent overview of the technology used through the years at Vostok Station to obtain deep cores for paleoclimate studies and the challenges encountered along the way. Of particular interest within this chapter is the description of the discovery of accretion ice (lake water frozen on the underside of the ice sheet). This discovery halted drilling at a depth of 3623 m, about 130 m above the actual surface of Lake Vostok, and unleashed a series of studies that led to the confirmation that a liquid water cavity did reside beneath the ice sheet. Importantly, these studies led to the first reports on the life and associated ecosystem properties that may exist within the lake itself. Unfortunately, it is within the description of potential life in the lake that I encountered the first technical problems, reflecting the author's apparent lack of biological training. He refers to the work of Abizov (an eminent Russian microbiologist who was one of the first scientists to have insight into life in deep ice) as showing the dominance of ‘grain-positive bacteria.’ Clearly, this must refer to ‘gram-positive bacteria,’ a designation that represents a unique lineage of the Domain Bacteria. Also, Zotikov cites microbial cells numbers published by Abizov from different horizons of the Vostok ice core as ranging between 0.8 × 10−3 cell m−3 and 10.8 × 10−3 cell m−3 (which equates to 8 × 10−10 cell cm−3 to 1 × 10−8 cell cm−3, respectively). This differs significantly from the cell abundances reproduced in Figure 7.10, which shows cell numbers averaging about 2 × 103 cell cm−3. The last paragraph also provides misleading statements describing the use of genomic tools and referring to a phylotype of bacteria described in a previous publication as having thermophilic properties as a ‘hemophilic’ bacterium. Much of the biology contained within this chapter should be interpreted with caution.
Chapter 8 begins with the author providing a nice description of the geophysical methodology and data interpretation used to define the morphology of the lake basin and its potential salinity and related circulation patterns. Unfortunately, Zotikov again ventures into biology toward the end of this chapter and provides an inexact representation of the history leading up to our current understanding of life within Lake Vostok. He incorrectly infers that the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) provides information of genetic potential, whereas it is really only a tool used to amplify DNA – it does not characterise it! He further refers to ‘methophiles’ as organisms with optimum growth rates near room temperature, whereas the correct terminology is ‘mesophiles.’ In general, all of the biological discussion lacks the historical development and accuracy of the geophysical discussion. Chapter 9 summarises new data on the lake derived primarily from workshops held in 1995 and 1999, along with a number of publications since that time. Given the 2006 publication date of this book, there are few citations referencing literature after 2000, a period when many new insights emerged regarding the origin and evolution of sub-glacial ecosystems. Chapter 9 provides a nice segue into Chapter 10, which summarises proposals for the international study of Lake Vostok. Unfortunately, as with Chapter 9, the description of the plans for international lake exploration stop with the report by Bell and Karl published in 1998; much has transpired since this report.
The final chapter (Chapter 11) focuses on the Russian ‘concept’ for penetrating Lake Vostok. The first few pages of this chapter provide a justification why the lake should be sampled and why the Russian programme is in a unique position to be the first to enter it. Within this context, I was a bit perplexed by the justification of using the present Vostok Station as a base for final drilling and exploration of the lake. Part of this justification is: ‘. . . a rule of science states that if it is possible to conduct an “experiment” (in a philosophical understanding of the word), it should be done as soon as possible if there is a scientific demand for it.’ I, for one, am not familiar with such a rule and have a difficult time relating it to Lake Vostok, one of the last unexplored frontiers on our planet. Chapter 11 also provides the first text that describes the international politics behind the penetration of Lake Vostok. Statements such as ‘. . . regarding scientific studies of Lake Vostok and penetration of the lake, the earlier spirit of the Antarctic Treaty has disappeared’ are clearly the views of the author and do not appear to be reflected among the majority of the scientific community. The sub-glacial group of specialists convened by SCAR in 2000 has maintained deliberations within the spirit of the Antarctic Treaty and has attempted to promote sub-glacial lake exploration in international scientific terms, while still engendering the environmental stewardship inherent in all Antarctic ventures.
I believe that, except for the biological interpretation, Zotikov has done a nice job of presenting an overview of the history and future of Lake Vostok. The presentation of the Russian literature alone makes this book an important read for those interested in the exploration of Lake Vostok. However, given the price (originally listed at US$129, but recently reduced to US$85), it may be best to check it out of your local library. (John C. Priscu, Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.)
