Vostok | NSF Ice Core Facility

General Information

Vostok is in proper stratigraphic order to about 3350 m depth. From 3350-3536 m depth, the ice is clean glacial/refrozen lake ice and is not in stratigraphic order. Discontinuous sections are available in the NSF-ICF archive. Several sections from other cores drilled at Vostok are also in the NSF-ICF archive.

Core(s) Available

Core Name	Core ID	Years Drilled	Lat/Long	Core Top (m)	Core Bottom (m)	Core Diameter (cm)	Site Elevation	Drilling Method	Drillers	Drilling Fluid	Original PI	PI Affiliation	De-accessed
VOSTOK 3G	VOST3G	1981-1985	-78.4666667, 106.8	192.50	2200.00	12.50	3500	Thermal	Arctic & Antarctic Mining Institute	Kerosene / Freon	Michael Bender and Eric Saltzman	Princeton University, University of Miami RSMAS	No
VOSTOK 4G2	VOST4G2	1987-1989	-78.4666667, 106.8	183.30	2543.56	11.00	3500	Thermal / Electromechanical	Arctic & Antarctic Mining Institute	Kerosene / Freon	Michael Bender and Eric Saltzman	Princeton University, University of Miami RSMAS	No
VOSTOK 5G	VOST5G	1990-1998	-78.4666667, 106.8	97.00	3623.00	12.00	3500	Thermal / Electromechanical	Arctic & Antarctic Mining Institute	Kerosene / Freon	Michael Bender and Eric Saltzman	Princeton University, University of Miami RSMAS	No
VOSTOK BH-1	VOSTBH-1	1991/1992	-78.4666667, 106.8	13.55	175.77	12.50	3500	Thermal	Arctic & Antarctic Mining Institute	Dry	Michael Bender and Eric Saltzman	Princeton University, University of Miami RSMAS	No
VOSTOK BH-3	VOSTBH-3	1991/1992	-78.4666667, 106.8	58.10	125.41	12.00	3500	Electromechanical	Claude Rado, Grenoble	Dry	Michael Bender and Eric Saltzman	Princeton University, University of Miami RSMAS	No
VOSTOK BH-5	VOSTBH-5	1991/1992	-78.4666667, 106.8	3.00	179.00	12.00	3500	Electromechanical	Claude Rado, Grenoble	Dry	Michael Bender and Eric Saltzman	Princeton University, University of Miami RSMAS	Yes
VOSTOK BH-7	VOSTBH-7	1995-1996	-78.4666667, 106.8	31.00	250.45	12.00	3500	Electromechanical	Claude Rado, Grenoble	Dry	Michael Bender and Eric Saltzman	Princeton University, University of Miami RSMAS	No

Data

Petit, Jean-Robert (1999): Age of the Vostok ice core. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.55504 (contains Vostok depth-age scale)
Petit, Jean-Robert; Jouzel, Jean (1999): Vostok ice core deuterium data for 420,000 years. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.55505 (contains Vostok depth-age scale)
Sowers, Todd A; Bender, Michael L; Labeyrie, Laurent D; Martinson, Douglas G; Jouzel, Jean; Raynaud, Dominique; Pichon, Jean-Jacques; Korotkevich, Yevgeniy S (1993): Age determination of Vostock Ice Core. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.729774, Supplement to: Sowers, TA et al. (1993): A 135,000-year Vostok-SPECMAP common temporal framework. Paleoceanography, 8(6), 737-766, https://doi.org/10.1029/93PA02328

Publications

Baker I, Cullen D and Iliescu D (2003) The microstructural location of impurities in ice. Canadian Journal of Physics, 81(1-2), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1139/p03-030
Bender ML, Barnett B, Dreyfus G, Jouzel J, Porcelli D (2008) The contemporary degassing rate of 40Ar from the solid Earth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105 (24) 8232-8237. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0711679105
Caillon N, Severinghaus JP, Barnola JM, Chappellaz J, Jouzel J and Parrenin F (2001) Estimation of temperature change and of gas age-ice age difference, 108 kyr B.P., at Vostok, Antarctica, Journal of Geophysical Research, 106(D23), 31893-31901, doi:10.1029/2001JD900145
Castello JD and Rogers SO (2016) A Synopsis of the Past, an Evaluation of the Current, and a Glance toward the Future. Life in Ancient Ice, p.289
Castello JD, Rogers SO, Starmer WT, Catranis CM, Ma L, Bachand GD, Zhao Y and Smith JE (1999) Detection of tomato mosaic tobamovirus RNA in ancient glacial ice, Polar Biology, 22(3), 207-212, doi:10.1007/s003000050411
Christner BC, Royston-Bishop G, Foreman CM, Arnold BR, Tranter M, Welch KA, Lyons WB, Tsapin AI, Studinger M and Priscu JC (2006) Limnological conditions in subglacial Lake Vostok, Antarctica, Limnology and Oceanography, 51(6), 2485-2501, doi:10.4319/lo.2006.51.6.2485
Christner BC, Mosley‐Thompson E, Thompson LG and Reeve JN (2001) Isolation of bacteria and 16S rDNAs from Lake Vostok accretion ice, Environmental Microbiology, 3(9), 570-577, doi:10.1046/j.1462-2920.2001.00226.x
D'Elia T, Veerapaneni R, Theraisnathan V and Rogers SO (2009) Isolation of fungi from Lake Vostok accretion ice. Mycologia, 101(6), 751–763, doi:10.3852/08-184
D'Elia T, Veerapaneni R and Rogers SO (2008) Isolation of Microbes from Lake Vostok Accretion Ice, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 74(15), 4962-4965, doi:10.1128/AEM.02501-07
Grimm RE, Stillman DE and MacGregor JA (2015) Dielectric signatures and evolution of glacier ice, Journal of Glaciology, 61(230), 1159-1170, doi:10.3189/2015JoG15J113
Gura C and Rogers SO (2020) Metatranscriptomic and Metagenomic Analysis of Biological Diversity in Subglacial Lake Vostok (Antarctica). Biology, 9(3), 55, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology9030055
Karl DM, Bird DF, Björkman K, Houlihan T, Shackelford R and Tupas L (1999) Microorganisms in the accreted ice of Lake Vostok, Antarctica, Science, 286(5447), 2144-2147, doi:10.1126/science.286.5447.2144
Ma L, Catranis CM, Starmer WT and Rogers SO (1999) Revival and characterization of fungi from ancient polar ice, Mycologist, 13(2), 70-73, doi:10.1016/S0269-915X(99)80012-3
Obbard R and Baker I (2007) The microstructure of meteoric ice from Vostok, Antarctica, Journal of Glaciology, 53(180), 41-62, doi:10.3189/172756507781833901
Obbard R, Iliescu D, Cullen D, Chang J and Baker I (2003) SEM/EDS comparison of polar and seasonal temperate ice. Microscopy Research and Technique, 62(1), 49-61. https://doi.org/10.1002/jemt.10381
Petit JR, Jouzel J, Raynaud D, Barkov NI, Barnola JM, Basile I, Bender M, Chappellaz J, Davis J, Delaygue G, Delmotte M, Kotlyakov VM, Legrand M, Lipenkov V, Lorius C, PÈpin L, Ritz C, Saltzman E, Stievenard M (1999) Climate and Atmospheric History of the Past 420,000 years from the Vostok Ice Core, Antarctica, Nature, 399, 429-436. https://doi.org/10.1038/20859
Rogers SO, Shtarkman YM, Kocer ZA, Edgar R, Veerapaneni R and D'Elia T (2013) Ecology of Subglacial Lake Vostok (Antarctica), Based on Metagenomic/Metatranscriptomic Analyses of Accretion Ice. Biology, 2(2), 629-650, doi:10.3390/biology2020629
Shtarkman YM, Kocer ZA, Edgar R, Veerapaneni RS, D'Elia T, Morris PF and Rogers SO (2013) Subglacial Lake Vostok (Antarctica) accretion ice contains a diverse set of sequences from aquatic, marine and sediment-inhabiting bacteria and eukarya. PLoS ONE, 8(7): e67221, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0067221
Vasiliev NI, Talalay P, Vostok Deep Ice Core Drilling Parties (2011) Twenty Years of Drilling the Deepest Hole in Ice. Scientific Drilling, 11, 41-45. https://doi.org/10.2204/iodp.sd.11.05.2011