A group of Russian scientists report that they have managed to drill down through massive layers of Antarctic ice to reach the subterranean Lake Vostok.

Some of the numbers surrounding this achievement are a bit mind-blowing. This is the first contact the lake has had with the outside world in about 25 million years. The drillers reached the water at a depth of 12,355 feet, or, almost twice as far down as any Appalachian mountain reaches up.

Antarctica is home to hundreds of sub-glacial lakes, and there are efforts underway to drill into a few of them. For example, British Antarctic Survey engineers recently brought equipment to the remote region over Lake Ellsworth, which sits almost two miles below the ice. They are hoping to drill there later this year. The idea is that lakes that have been cut off for so long could provide some insights into the development of the Antarctic and into organisms that may have evolved completely independently of outside influence.

There are worries, though. Disturbing an environment that hasn't seen the light of day in 25 million years could be a bad idea. The Russian team, however, apparently took precautions to avoid contaminating the lake by using clean, hot water-based drilling for the last stretch before reaching the lake. Greenpeace Russia worries that drilling fluids could still get through the bore hole and into the lake, and Texas A&M oceanographer Mahlon C. Kennicutt II told National Geographic that bringing samples up through the bore hole could contaminate them.

Still, Kennicutt joined others in celebrating the breakthrough. "Fifteen years ago we couldn't imagine the day there would be penetration of one of these lakes," he said.

No matter what these teams end up finding, there is something comforting about the fact that there are still pieces of the world out there to discover, even if scientists have to endure sub-zero temperatures and drill through miles of ice to get to them.

Image: Vostok Station, via NOAA