The bottom topography and subglacial Lake Vostok water body, East Antarctica

In the early 1990s, as a result of the analysis of satellite altimetry data, a flat subhorizontal ice plain was found to the north of the Russian Vostok Station and it was suggested that this plain is associated with the water surface with the same area. In summer of 1994, at a session of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, held in Rome, A.P. Kapitsa made a report concerning the location of a large subglacial freshwater lake in this area. It was proposed to name it Lake Vostok. After this event, in 1996, this fact was thoroughly analyzed and compared with previously obtained seismic and radar data. This analysis supported the idea that this natural phenomenon existed.