What is the deepest subglacial lake in Antarctica?

The deepest subglacial lake in Antarctica is Lake Vostok, buried beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Lake Vostok lies beneath roughly 4 kilometres of ice near Russia’s Vostok Station. Radar and seismic surveys indicate that the hidden freshwater lake reaches about 1,000 to 1,200 metres in depth in its deepest southern sections. Its enormous size also makes it Antarctica’s largest known subglacial lake.

The lake remains liquid because geothermal heat rises from below while the thick ice above provides pressure and insulation. Scientists study it remotely because drilling directly into an isolated ecosystem risks contamination. Ice cores and accreted lake ice have nevertheless provided evidence about the lake’s chemistry and possible microbial life.

Lake Vostok is often confused with Lake Ellsworth or Lake Whillans, which are also important Antarctic subglacial lakes. Lake Vanda, by contrast, is a surface lake in the ice-free McMurdo Dry Valleys. The “deepest” label refers to the depth of the water cavity, not the depth of the ice covering it.