A team of scientists from the United Kingdom has announced that it will explore a lake that has been buried beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet for hundreds of thousands of years.

During the 2012-2013 Antarctic winters, researchers will sample water from subglacial Lake Ellsworth in the search for life forms and extract sediment from the lake bed to find clues to climate changes over many millennia.

In a press release from the Natural Environment Research Council, Professor Martin Siegert from the University of Edinburgh said the ancient lake “is a dark, cold place that has been sealed from the outside world and it’s likely to contain unique forms of life.”

In early 2008, an International Polar Year project mapped the extent and depth of the lake, which is under 3 km, or 1.864 miles, of ice.

The current research team will need to build a hot water drill and probe that will not contaminate the lake and set up its operation deep in the interior of West Antarctica.