Antarctic Lakes

I know this seems utterly random, but I've been thinking quite a bit lately about lakes in Antarctica. I really mean *in* Antarctica too, since of course it's way too cold for a lake to be liquid on the surface (as of 2007 anyway).

I'm thinking about it not because of global warming, but because of the story I'm writing for my game. Most of the story takes place inside a laboratory built on the shores of a lake beneath two miles of ice at the South Pole. Now, precisely why the lab is in that location I won't get into here: you'll have to wait for the story to be finished!

The real lakes that scientists have been finding these past few years have yet to even be directly studied. Here's a National Geographic article I found that outlines what's going on:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1101_041101_antarctic_lakes.html
Even AOL had a short article about it last week, so it's becoming somewhat mainstream.

Scientists say there probably isn't much life beyond bacteria and other really tiny organisms living in these sub-surface waters, but I imagined it a bit more like the bottom of the ocean around the volcanic vents. In my game/story there will be all kinds of creatures living in these waters - little white crabs, bio-luminescent fish, and other interesting things like that. The "official" word is that the lab was built to study these animals. They are extremely rare, having been isolated for millions of years and evolving independently from the rest of the world. Research opportunities abound!

Soon perhaps I'll post a bit about the story I'm writing, so those who care and who read this will get a taste of what the lab was really built for. :-)