Limits RegistryPUBLIC RECORD
Limits RegistryLake Vostok, buried beneath roughly 4 km of Antarctic ice near Russia's Vostok Station, covers an estimated 12,500 km² — comparable in area to Lake Ontario — making it the largest known subglacial lake on Earth. Kept liquid by geothermal heat and immense pressure despite sitting under one of the coldest places on the planet, it had been isolated from the surface for possibly millions of years before Russian researchers drilled into it in 2012.
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Lake Vostok, buried beneath roughly 4 km of Antarctic ice near Russia's Vostok Station, covers an estimated 12,500 km² — comparable in area to Lake Ontario — making it the largest known subglacial lake on Earth. Kept liquid by geothermal heat and immense pressure despite sitting under one of the coldest places on the planet, it had been isolated from the surface for possibly millions of years before Russian researchers drilled into it in 2012.
The greatest surface area of any known lake of liquid water trapped beneath a glacier or ice sheet.
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Limits Registry. LR-LARGEST-SUBGLACIAL-LAKE. Largest known subglacial lake. 2026.