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Lake Whillans

Lake Whillans is a subglacial lake in Antarctica. The lake is located under the Whillans Ice Stream at the southeastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf in the west of the continent. The lake surface is 800 m (2,600 ft) beneath the surface of the ice and the lake covers an estimated area of 60 km2 (20 sq mi). Lake depths measured thus far have been around 2 metres. Its temperature is −0.49 °C, below 0 °C because of the high pressure.

Discovery
The lake was first described in 2007 by Helen Fricker, a glaciologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Satellite laser altimeter data from NASA's ICESat had revealed the ice at that location rising and falling, leading her team to conclude the presence of the lake. ==Research==
Research
On 28 January 2013, the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) team announced that they had reached the lake surface having drilled through the ice above. Over the following days the team collected water samples and also sediment cores from the lake bottom. Initial analysis of water and sediment has revealed that they contain more than 3,900 kinds of microbial life. Bacteria are surviving in this environment without photosynthesis. Similar efforts have been undertaken at Lake Vostok, where samples have yet to yield any discoveries, and at Lake Ellsworth, where drilling had to be abandoned. == See also ==
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