A 60-year international history of Antarctic subglacial lake exploration
In January 2013, the US WISSARD programme measured and sampled Lake Whillans, a subglacial water body at the edge of West Antarctica, in a clean and environmentally sensitive manner, proving the existence of microbial life beneath this part of the ice sheet. The success of WISSARD represented ben ch...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/44066 https://doi.org/10.1144/SP461.5 |
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ftimperialcol:oai:spiral.imperial.ac.uk:10044/1/44066 2023-05-15T13:51:15+02:00 A 60-year international history of Antarctic subglacial lake exploration Siegert, MJ Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) British Council (UK) 2017-01-16 http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/44066 https://doi.org/10.1144/SP461.5 unknown Geological Society Special Publications (Geological Society London) This article is published under the terms of the CC-BY 3.0 license. CC-BY 04 Earth Sciences Geochemistry & Geophysics Journal Article 2017 ftimperialcol https://doi.org/10.1144/SP461.5 2018-09-16T05:58:00Z In January 2013, the US WISSARD programme measured and sampled Lake Whillans, a subglacial water body at the edge of West Antarctica, in a clean and environmentally sensitive manner, proving the existence of microbial life beneath this part of the ice sheet. The success of WISSARD represented ben chmark in the exploration of Antarctica, made possible by a rich and diverse history of events, discoveries and discussions over the past 60 years ranging from geophysical measurement of subglacial lakes, to the development of scientific hypotheses concer ning these environments and the engineering solutions required to test them . In this article, I provide a personal account of this history, from the published literature and my own involvement in subglacial lake exploration over the last 20 years. I show t hat our ability to directly measure and sample subglacial water bodies in Antarctica has been made possible by a strong theme of international collaboration, at odds with the media representation of a scientific ‘race’ between nations. I also consider plan s for subglacial lake exploration and discuss how such collaboration is likely to be key to success of future research in this field. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica Imperial College London: Spiral Antarctic West Antarctica Whillans ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) Geological Society, London, Special Publications 461 1 7 21 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Imperial College London: Spiral |
op_collection_id |
ftimperialcol |
language |
unknown |
topic |
04 Earth Sciences Geochemistry & Geophysics |
spellingShingle |
04 Earth Sciences Geochemistry & Geophysics Siegert, MJ A 60-year international history of Antarctic subglacial lake exploration |
topic_facet |
04 Earth Sciences Geochemistry & Geophysics |
description |
In January 2013, the US WISSARD programme measured and sampled Lake Whillans, a subglacial water body at the edge of West Antarctica, in a clean and environmentally sensitive manner, proving the existence of microbial life beneath this part of the ice sheet. The success of WISSARD represented ben chmark in the exploration of Antarctica, made possible by a rich and diverse history of events, discoveries and discussions over the past 60 years ranging from geophysical measurement of subglacial lakes, to the development of scientific hypotheses concer ning these environments and the engineering solutions required to test them . In this article, I provide a personal account of this history, from the published literature and my own involvement in subglacial lake exploration over the last 20 years. I show t hat our ability to directly measure and sample subglacial water bodies in Antarctica has been made possible by a strong theme of international collaboration, at odds with the media representation of a scientific ‘race’ between nations. I also consider plan s for subglacial lake exploration and discuss how such collaboration is likely to be key to success of future research in this field. |
author2 |
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) British Council (UK) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Siegert, MJ |
author_facet |
Siegert, MJ |
author_sort |
Siegert, MJ |
title |
A 60-year international history of Antarctic subglacial lake exploration |
title_short |
A 60-year international history of Antarctic subglacial lake exploration |
title_full |
A 60-year international history of Antarctic subglacial lake exploration |
title_fullStr |
A 60-year international history of Antarctic subglacial lake exploration |
title_full_unstemmed |
A 60-year international history of Antarctic subglacial lake exploration |
title_sort |
60-year international history of antarctic subglacial lake exploration |
publisher |
Geological Society |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/44066 https://doi.org/10.1144/SP461.5 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) |
geographic |
Antarctic West Antarctica Whillans |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic West Antarctica Whillans |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
op_relation |
Special Publications (Geological Society London) |
op_rights |
This article is published under the terms of the CC-BY 3.0 license. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1144/SP461.5 |
container_title |
Geological Society, London, Special Publications |
container_volume |
461 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
7 |
op_container_end_page |
21 |
_version_ |
1766255015379337216 |