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Nondestructive technology has been developed for the extraction of light gases dissolved in ice. The technology has been tested on samples of atmospheric and congealed ice of the 5-G3 bore hole of the Vostok station (East Antarctica) extracted from depths of 3457–3698 m. Down to 3539 m, ice is of an atmospheric origin, while ice deposited deeper is formed by natural water of Vostok Lake frozen on the glacier. Light gases were extracted into samplers (glass flasks) in the course of the 3-day degassing of samples freshly elevated from a bore hole. The samples were analyzed on the FT-1 time-of-flight mass spectrometer 6 months after sampling. Measurements reveal the presence of amounts of helium as well as molecular hydrogen considerably exceeding the atmospheric values. Measured values of gas ratio H2/4He = 5.4 ± 1.9 in the samples from depths of 3596–3698 m exceed the atmospheric values by more than an order of magnitude.

A remarkable event occurred in February 2012: the Vostok deep drilling project was complete at the Vostok station in Antarctica. Russian scientists were the first in the world to penetrate deep into the famous subglacial lake located there. The lake is unique because it has been in isolation from external impacts for a long time. The authors describe everything that has been done to reach the lake’s surface and present the findings.