A NORTH-East academic is part of a four-man science team led by the British Antarctic Survey that is exploring an ancient lake beneath Antarctica's ice sheet.

Dr John Woodward, of Witton Gilbert, near Durham City, a Senior Lecturer in Geography in the School of Applied Sciences at Northumbria University, Newcastle, is part of a team of four whose work has been featured on ITV's revived News at Ten.

Lake Ellsworth is the size of Lake Windermere and could yield vital clues to life on Earth, climate change and future sea-level rise.

The scientists are camped out at one of the most remote places on Earth and are conducting a series of experiments on the ice.

Glaciologist Dr Andy Smith, of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), said: "This is the first phase of what we think is an incredibly exciting project. We know the lake is 3.2km beneath the ice; long and thin and around 18 km2 in area.

"First results from our experiments have shown the lake is 105m deep. This means Lake Ellsworth is a deep-water body, much like Lake Vostok, and confirms the lake as an ideal site for future exploration missions to detect microbial life and recover climate records.

"If the survey work goes well, the next phase will be to build a probe, drill down into the lake and explore and sample the lake water. The UK could do this as soon as 2012/13."

Dr Woodward said: "Scientists would love to know what is living in these lake environments and what this might tell us about possible life in extraterrestrial environments such as the frozen moons of Jupiter."