Microbiological flora as a function of ice depth in central Antarctica.

A technique has been developed for obtaining ice samples under sterile conditions for microbiological analyses as a function of ice thicknesses and with a view to clarifying the possibility of long term microbial anabiosis under permafrost conditions. For the first time microbiological studies from the surface down to 312 meters in the Vostok station region have been carried out and the distribution of microorganisms in the strata studied has been clarified. Microorganisms occur rather rarely, and their distribution is of a random character, independent of the depth of sampling. Viable microorganisms have been found in the ice horizons approximately as old as 8-13 thousand years.