Vostok, Antarctica

Vostok, Antarctica is located near the Geomagnetic South Pole (see South Pole), at the center of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Its name refers to the Russian research station. The station is 3488 m above sea level. It is the most isolated of all of the established research stations on the Antarctic continent.

It is the place on Earth at which the lowest temperature has been reliably measured (though since the temperature decreases with height, it is virtually certain that lower temperatures occurred higher up towards the summit of the ice sheet). At the Russian research station the temperature is regularly in the -30 °C to -60 °C range.

The place is known as the Southern Pole of Cold. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth, -89.2 °C (-128.6 °F), was measured here on July 21, 1983. Although still unofficial, Vostok Station may have broken its own record for the coldest temperature on Earth. It has been reported that Vostok reached the temperature of -91 °C during the winter of 1997.

An ice core was drilled at Vostok, collaboratively with the French, which produced a record of past environmental conditions stretching back 420,000 years and covering four previous glacial periods. This has recently (2004) been exceeded by the EPICA core, which whilst shallower, covers a long time span.

Of particular scientific interest, apart from its low temperatures, Vostok was found to be sitting on top of the world's most southerly lake, Lake Vostok.

This station is now cooperatively operated by Russian, American, and French scientists.

External links

• http://www.aari.nw.ru/projects/Antarctic/stations/vostok/vostok_en.html - Russian Antarctic Expedition, Vostok page.
• http://www.nerc-bas.ac.uk/icd/gjma/vostok.temps.html - Vostok temperature data