Role of lithology, weathering and precipitation on water chemistry of lakes from Larsemann Hills and Schirmacher Oasis of East Antarctica

• Main Authors: Asthana, Rajesh, Shrivastava, Prakash Kumar, Srivastava, Hari Bahadur, Swain, Ashit K., Beg, Mirza Javed, Dharwadkar, Amit
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Polar Research Institute of China - PRIC 2019
• Subjects: Atmosphere; Antarctic; East Antarctica; East Antarctic Ice Sheet; Larsemann Hills; Advances in Polar Science; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Polar Science
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/2680/; http://library.arcticportal.org/2680/1/A1901004.pdf

Schirmacher Oasis and Larsemann Hills areas represent two different periglacial environments of East Antarctica. Schirmacher Oasis is characterized by a vast stretch of ice-shelf in the north and East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) to its south. Whereas, in Larsemann Hills area the northern and north-western boundary is coastal area and EAIS in the southern part, exhibiting polar lowland between the marine and continental glacial ecosystems. Physico-chemical parameters of water samples from different lakes of both of these two distinct locations are quite contrasting and have indicated influence of lithology, weathering, evaporation and precipitation. The lake water chemistry in Larsemann Hills area is mainly governed by the lithology of the area while Schirmacher lakes exhibit influence of precipitation and rock composition. All major ions of lake waters indicate balanced ionic concentrations. The atmospheric precipitation has significantly modified the ionic distributions in the lakes and channels. Carbonation is the main proton supplying geochemical reactions involved in the rock weathering and this is an important mechanism which controls the hydrochemistry. The lake water hydrochemistry differs widely not only between two distant periglacial zones but also within a short distance of a single periglacial entity, indicating influence of territorial climate over hydrochemistry.