Buried beneath several miles of ice in Antarctica are lakes ranging in size from Lake Ontario to lakes the size of Manhattan. Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake on Earth, is believed to harbor ancient life that has been isolated from open exchange with the atmosphere for several million years.

Lake Vostok (left) , discovered in 1996 by Russian and British scientists underneath the Russian station Vostok in Antarctica,  is one of 140 subglacial lakes located beneath the Antarctic ice-sheet. At 250km long and 50km wide, some 4000 meters underneath the surface ice, and could be one of the most important scientific finds of the last several decades.