Basal melting over Subglacial Lake Ellsworth and its catchment: insights from englacial layering
Deep-water ‘stable’ subglacial lakes likely contain microbial life adapted in isolation to extreme environmental conditions. How water is supplied into a subglacial lake, and how water outflows, is important for understanding these conditions. Isochronal radio-echo layers have been used to infer whe...
Published in: | Annals of Glaciology |
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Cambridge University Press
2020
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:9bbf3770b4b146dbbee6eaa46c65282a 2023-05-15T13:29:34+02:00 Basal melting over Subglacial Lake Ellsworth and its catchment: insights from englacial layering Neil Ross Martin Siegert 2020-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.50 https://doaj.org/article/9bbf3770b4b146dbbee6eaa46c65282a EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0260305520000506/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0260-3055 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5644 doi:10.1017/aog.2020.50 0260-3055 1727-5644 https://doaj.org/article/9bbf3770b4b146dbbee6eaa46c65282a Annals of Glaciology, Vol 61, Pp 198-205 (2020) Antarctic glaciology basal melt radio-echo sounding subglacial lakes Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.50 2023-03-12T01:31:55Z Deep-water ‘stable’ subglacial lakes likely contain microbial life adapted in isolation to extreme environmental conditions. How water is supplied into a subglacial lake, and how water outflows, is important for understanding these conditions. Isochronal radio-echo layers have been used to infer where melting occurs above Lake Vostok and Lake Concordia in East Antarctica but have not been used more widely. We examine englacial layers above and around Lake Ellsworth, West Antarctica, to establish where the ice sheet is ‘drawn down’ towards the bed and, thus, experiences melting. Layer drawdown is focused over and around the northwest parts of the lake as ice, flowing obliquely to the lake axis becomes afloat. Drawdown can be explained by a combination of basal melting and the Weertman effect, at the transition from grounded to floating ice. We evaluate the importance of these processes on englacial layering over Lake Ellsworth and discuss implications for water circulation and sediment deposition. We report evidence of a second subglacial lake near the head of the hydrological catchment and present a new high-resolution bed DEM and hydropotential model of the lake outlet zone. These observations provide insight into the connectivity between Lake Ellsworth and the wider subglacial hydrological system. Article in Journal/Newspaper Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic East Antarctica West Antarctica Lake Vostok ENVELOPE(106.000,106.000,-77.500,-77.500) Weertman ENVELOPE(-67.753,-67.753,-66.972,-66.972) Annals of Glaciology 61 81 198 205 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Antarctic glaciology basal melt radio-echo sounding subglacial lakes Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
Antarctic glaciology basal melt radio-echo sounding subglacial lakes Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 Neil Ross Martin Siegert Basal melting over Subglacial Lake Ellsworth and its catchment: insights from englacial layering |
topic_facet |
Antarctic glaciology basal melt radio-echo sounding subglacial lakes Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
Deep-water ‘stable’ subglacial lakes likely contain microbial life adapted in isolation to extreme environmental conditions. How water is supplied into a subglacial lake, and how water outflows, is important for understanding these conditions. Isochronal radio-echo layers have been used to infer where melting occurs above Lake Vostok and Lake Concordia in East Antarctica but have not been used more widely. We examine englacial layers above and around Lake Ellsworth, West Antarctica, to establish where the ice sheet is ‘drawn down’ towards the bed and, thus, experiences melting. Layer drawdown is focused over and around the northwest parts of the lake as ice, flowing obliquely to the lake axis becomes afloat. Drawdown can be explained by a combination of basal melting and the Weertman effect, at the transition from grounded to floating ice. We evaluate the importance of these processes on englacial layering over Lake Ellsworth and discuss implications for water circulation and sediment deposition. We report evidence of a second subglacial lake near the head of the hydrological catchment and present a new high-resolution bed DEM and hydropotential model of the lake outlet zone. These observations provide insight into the connectivity between Lake Ellsworth and the wider subglacial hydrological system. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Neil Ross Martin Siegert |
author_facet |
Neil Ross Martin Siegert |
author_sort |
Neil Ross |
title |
Basal melting over Subglacial Lake Ellsworth and its catchment: insights from englacial layering |
title_short |
Basal melting over Subglacial Lake Ellsworth and its catchment: insights from englacial layering |
title_full |
Basal melting over Subglacial Lake Ellsworth and its catchment: insights from englacial layering |
title_fullStr |
Basal melting over Subglacial Lake Ellsworth and its catchment: insights from englacial layering |
title_full_unstemmed |
Basal melting over Subglacial Lake Ellsworth and its catchment: insights from englacial layering |
title_sort |
basal melting over subglacial lake ellsworth and its catchment: insights from englacial layering |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.50 https://doaj.org/article/9bbf3770b4b146dbbee6eaa46c65282a |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(106.000,106.000,-77.500,-77.500) ENVELOPE(-67.753,-67.753,-66.972,-66.972) |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctica West Antarctica Lake Vostok Weertman |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctica West Antarctica Lake Vostok Weertman |
genre |
Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Annals of Glaciology Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
op_source |
Annals of Glaciology, Vol 61, Pp 198-205 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0260305520000506/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0260-3055 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5644 doi:10.1017/aog.2020.50 0260-3055 1727-5644 https://doaj.org/article/9bbf3770b4b146dbbee6eaa46c65282a |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2020.50 |
container_title |
Annals of Glaciology |
container_volume |
61 |
container_issue |
81 |
container_start_page |
198 |
op_container_end_page |
205 |
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1766001302586785792 |