A Freshwater Lake Below Antarctic Surface

[Vassegh, Robert F]

I know we're on the next chapter, but this vaguely V.-related.  I wonder if
they'll find any dead spider monkeys near the lake?

http://www.latimes.com/cgi-bin/slwebcli?DBLIST=lt01&DOCNUM=17942&DBPUB=20010
304SYnWZOxP&QDesc=A%20Sea%20of%20Mystery%2C%20Frozen%20in%20Time

A Sea of Mystery, Frozen in Time 

Miles below the antarctic ice, a freshwater lake may harbor ancient life.
The dilemma: how to study it without destroying it. 
By: ROBERT LEE HOTZ, TIMES SCIENCE WRITER 

VOSTOK, ANTARCTICA -- At the coldest spot on Earth, Michael Studinger is
mapping a world he cannot see. 

Around him stretches a snow-scape as smooth as a starched shirt, so empty of
landmarks that any sense of scale or distance is lost in the white. But
hidden miles beneath the icecap on which he stands is a freshwater lake as
long as Lake Ontario and as deep as Lake Tahoe--its untouched waters a time
capsule from more than a million years ago. 

[snip]