Scientists halt quest for 'lost world' under Antarctic ice
Lack of hot water and fuel force British team to abandon £8m search
for life in sub-glacial lake
 An ambitious plan to drill through an Antarctic ice sheet two miles
thick in order to search for microbial life in a sub-glacial lake had to
be abandoned on Christmas Day because of a technical problem. But
scientists have vowed to do everything they can to complete the mission
if they can return to the site in two or three years' time. Scientists
from the British Antarctic Survey announced that they had to call off
their attempt to reach Lake Ellsworth using a hot-water drill because
they had run out of both hot water and the fuel needed to create a
borehole two-miles deep.
An unidentified technical problem meant that the scientists were
unable to connect the main borehole to a cavity of melt-water they had
deliberately created 300 metres under the surface of the ice sheet. The
weight of the water in the cavity was supposed to balance the enormous
pressures within the main borehole once it had penetrated the
sub-glacial lake.
"A real point was reached when we had completely depleted our stocks
of water which unfortunately we couldn't replenish in time, and in
addition we had depleted our fuel. It was not a difficult decision to
take because it was made for us," said Chris Hill, the expedition's
leader, in a phone call to The Independent.
"Obviously everyone on the site is disappointed that we cannot do
what we came here to complete. But we are being pragmatic about it and
have to accept the situation. We are now concentrating on packing up and
regrouping," Dr Hill said. Professor Martin Siegert of Bristol
University, the principal investigator on the mission, had to make the
difficult decision to abandon the attempt to reach Lake Ellsworth in the
early hours of Christmas Day UK time. It came just a few days after
receiving spare parts for the main boiler, which had broken down last
week.
"Although circumstances have not worked out as we would have wished,
I am confident that through the huge efforts of the field team, and our
colleagues in the UK, we have done as much as we possibly could have
done," Prof Siegert said. "Once back in the UK I will gather our
consortium to seek ways in which our research efforts may continue. I
remain confident that we will unlock the secrets of Lake Ellsworth in
coming seasons," he said. The first borehole used to create the cavity
of melt-water appeared to have worked well. A second, main borehole
drilled just two metres away should have made a connection with the
cavity, but this did not occur, Dr Hill said. "Both boreholes reached a
depth of 300 metres and there should have been an automatic connection
between them but this didn't happen. It is possible that the second
borehole may have wandered of course but we won't know what happened
until we have chance to study it," Dr Hill said.
The team had spent 20 hours trying to make connection between the
boreholes and in doing so they used up all their store of melt-water at
the surface. In addition, calculations showed that they did not have
enough fuel to continue with a second borehole to reach the sub-glacial
lake two miles below the surface of the ice sheet.
- The Independent
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