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Vostok Subglacial Lake: A Review of Geophysical Data Regarding Its Discovery and Topographic SettingVostok Subglacial Lake is the largest and best known sub-ice lake in Antarctica. The establishment of its water depth (>500 m) led to an appreciation that such environments may be habitats for life and could contain ancient records of ice sheet change, which catalyzed plans for exploration and research. Here we discuss geophysical data used to identify the lake and the likely physical, chemical, and biological processes that occur in it. The lake is more than 250 km long and around 80 km wide in one place. It lies beneath 4.2 to 3.7 km of ice and exists because background levels of geothermal heating are sufficient to warm the ice base to the pressure melting value. Seismic and gravity measurements show the lake has two distinct basins. The Vostok ice core extracted >200 m of ice accreted from the lake to the ice sheet base. Analysis of this ice has given valuable insights into the lake s biological and chemical setting. The inclination of the ice-water interface leads to differential basal melting in the north versus freezing in the south, which excites circulation and potential mixing of the water. The exact nature of circulation depends on hydrochemical properties, which are not known at this stage. The age of the subglacial lake is likely to be as old as the ice sheet (approx.14 Ma). The age of the water within the lake will be related to the age of the ice melting into it and the level of mixing. Rough estimates put that combined age as approx.1 Ma.
Document ID
20120016961
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Siegert, Martin J.
(Edinburgh Univ. United Kingdom)
Popov, Sergey
(Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition Saint Petersburg, Russia)
Studinger, Michael
(Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory Palisades, NY, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2011
Publication Information
Publication: Geophysical Monograph Series
Volume: 192
Subject Category
Geophysics
Report/Patent Number
GSFC.JA.6718.2012
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NE/G00465x/1
CONTRACT_GRANT: NE/D008638/1
CONTRACT_GRANT: RFBR 10-05-91330-NNIO_a
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF ANT 05-37752
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF ANT 06-36584
CONTRACT_GRANT: NE/D003733/1
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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