Scientists in Antarctica got a unique gift this holiday season: access to a mysterious lake buried under more than 3,500 feet of ice. It took about two days of drilling to reach Mercer Subglacial Lake on Dec. 26, the Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) announced in a blog post. The organization has scheduled at least eight days dedicated to sampling the lake's water and sediment, a previous blog post states. Priscu told Earther researchers hope to gain more information about life that exists thousands of feet under ice, noting it will take years to study all the samples they collect. “[So] it’ll take some time to process what the ‘most’ exciting part [is].”Mercer Subglacial Lake was first discovered via satellite more than a decade ago, according to Nature.

Source: Fox News December 31, 2018 20:26 UTC