Evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an Antarctic subglacial lake
Lakes beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet are of fundamental scientific interest for their ability to contain unique records of ice sheet history and microbial life in their sediments. However, no records of subglacial lake sedimentation have yet been acquired from beneath the interior of the ice sheet,...
Published in: | Earth and Planetary Science Letters |
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ftimperialcol:oai:spiral.imperial.ac.uk:10044/1/65305 2023-05-15T14:02:50+02:00 Evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an Antarctic subglacial lake Smith, A Woodward, J Ross, N Bentley, M Hodgson, D Siegert, M King, E Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) 2018-10-07 http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/65305 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 unknown Elsevier Earth and Planetary Science Letters © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). CC-BY 151 139 Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geochemistry & Geophysics Subglacial Lake Ellsworth glaciology active-source seismology sedimentary environment ice sheet Antarctica WEST ANTARCTICA ICE-SHEET SEISMIC OBSERVATIONS MARINE-SEDIMENTS EAST ANTARCTICA STABILITY ELLSWORTH WHILLANS HOLOCENE STREAM 02 Physical Sciences 04 Earth Sciences Journal Article 2018 ftimperialcol https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 2018-12-27T23:40:01Z Lakes beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet are of fundamental scientific interest for their ability to contain unique records of ice sheet history and microbial life in their sediments. However, no records of subglacial lake sedimentation have yet been acquired from beneath the interior of the ice sheet, and understanding of sediment pathways, processes and structure in subglacial lake environments remains uncertain. Here we present an analysis of seismic data from Subglacial Lake Ellsworth, showing that the lake bed comprises very fine-grained sediments deposited in a low energy environment, with low water- and sediment-fluxes. Minimum sediment thickness is 6 m, the result of prolonged low sedimentation rates. Based on the few available analogues, we speculate this sediment age range is a minimum of 150 ka, and possibly >1 Ma. Sediment mass movements have occurred, but they are rare and have been buried by subsequent sedimentation. We present a new conceptual model of subglacial lake sedimentation, allowing a framework for evaluating processes in subglacial lake environments, and for determining future lake access locations and interpreting subglacial lake samples. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica Imperial College London: Spiral Antarctic East Antarctica The Antarctic West Antarctica Whillans ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) Earth and Planetary Science Letters 504 139 151 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Imperial College London: Spiral |
op_collection_id |
ftimperialcol |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geochemistry & Geophysics Subglacial Lake Ellsworth glaciology active-source seismology sedimentary environment ice sheet Antarctica WEST ANTARCTICA ICE-SHEET SEISMIC OBSERVATIONS MARINE-SEDIMENTS EAST ANTARCTICA STABILITY ELLSWORTH WHILLANS HOLOCENE STREAM 02 Physical Sciences 04 Earth Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geochemistry & Geophysics Subglacial Lake Ellsworth glaciology active-source seismology sedimentary environment ice sheet Antarctica WEST ANTARCTICA ICE-SHEET SEISMIC OBSERVATIONS MARINE-SEDIMENTS EAST ANTARCTICA STABILITY ELLSWORTH WHILLANS HOLOCENE STREAM 02 Physical Sciences 04 Earth Sciences Smith, A Woodward, J Ross, N Bentley, M Hodgson, D Siegert, M King, E Evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an Antarctic subglacial lake |
topic_facet |
Science & Technology Physical Sciences Geochemistry & Geophysics Subglacial Lake Ellsworth glaciology active-source seismology sedimentary environment ice sheet Antarctica WEST ANTARCTICA ICE-SHEET SEISMIC OBSERVATIONS MARINE-SEDIMENTS EAST ANTARCTICA STABILITY ELLSWORTH WHILLANS HOLOCENE STREAM 02 Physical Sciences 04 Earth Sciences |
description |
Lakes beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet are of fundamental scientific interest for their ability to contain unique records of ice sheet history and microbial life in their sediments. However, no records of subglacial lake sedimentation have yet been acquired from beneath the interior of the ice sheet, and understanding of sediment pathways, processes and structure in subglacial lake environments remains uncertain. Here we present an analysis of seismic data from Subglacial Lake Ellsworth, showing that the lake bed comprises very fine-grained sediments deposited in a low energy environment, with low water- and sediment-fluxes. Minimum sediment thickness is 6 m, the result of prolonged low sedimentation rates. Based on the few available analogues, we speculate this sediment age range is a minimum of 150 ka, and possibly >1 Ma. Sediment mass movements have occurred, but they are rare and have been buried by subsequent sedimentation. We present a new conceptual model of subglacial lake sedimentation, allowing a framework for evaluating processes in subglacial lake environments, and for determining future lake access locations and interpreting subglacial lake samples. |
author2 |
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Smith, A Woodward, J Ross, N Bentley, M Hodgson, D Siegert, M King, E |
author_facet |
Smith, A Woodward, J Ross, N Bentley, M Hodgson, D Siegert, M King, E |
author_sort |
Smith, A |
title |
Evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an Antarctic subglacial lake |
title_short |
Evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an Antarctic subglacial lake |
title_full |
Evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an Antarctic subglacial lake |
title_fullStr |
Evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an Antarctic subglacial lake |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an Antarctic subglacial lake |
title_sort |
evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an antarctic subglacial lake |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/65305 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.250,-64.250,-84.450,-84.450) |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctica The Antarctic West Antarctica Whillans |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctica The Antarctic West Antarctica Whillans |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
op_source |
151 139 |
op_relation |
Earth and Planetary Science Letters |
op_rights |
© 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 |
container_title |
Earth and Planetary Science Letters |
container_volume |
504 |
container_start_page |
139 |
op_container_end_page |
151 |
_version_ |
1766273236200325120 |