Clathrate formation and the fate of noble and biologically useful gases in Lake Vostok, Antarctica
Lake Vostok is a large lake located 4 km beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that should be supersaturated with dissolved gases in equilibrium with clathrate present in the water column. Here we show that if the age of the lake is such that the lake water mass has been cycled over 30 times then the...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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ftlouisianastuir:oai:digitalcommons.lsu.edu:geo_pubs-1663 2023-06-11T04:07:14+02:00 Clathrate formation and the fate of noble and biologically useful gases in Lake Vostok, Antarctica McKay, C. P. Hand, K. P. Doran, P. T. Andersen, D. T. Priscu, J. C. 2003-07-01T07:00:00Z https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/geo_pubs/664 https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL017490 unknown LSU Digital Commons https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/geo_pubs/664 doi:10.1029/2003GL017490 Faculty Publications text 2003 ftlouisianastuir https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL017490 2023-05-28T18:16:59Z Lake Vostok is a large lake located 4 km beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that should be supersaturated with dissolved gases in equilibrium with clathrate present in the water column. Here we show that if the age of the lake is such that the lake water mass has been cycled over 30 times then the total dissolved gas equilibrates at about 2.5 liters (STP) of gas per kg of water; high enough to have important implications for drilling into this deep subglacial lake. Different air gases are preferentially incorporated into the clathrate and thus the molar ratios in the water column will reflect the presence of clathrate and indicate a more precise age of the lake. Preferential incorporation of CO2 into the clathrate would result in the clathrate sinking if the carbon input is 1% of the air input and the lake water is fresh water. The redox state of the lake is set by the high oxygen concentration which is 50 times more than air-equilibrated water and may be a severe biological stress. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet LSU Digital Commons (Louisiana State University) Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet Lake Vostok ENVELOPE(106.000,106.000,-77.500,-77.500) Geophysical Research Letters 30 13 |
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LSU Digital Commons (Louisiana State University) |
op_collection_id |
ftlouisianastuir |
language |
unknown |
description |
Lake Vostok is a large lake located 4 km beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that should be supersaturated with dissolved gases in equilibrium with clathrate present in the water column. Here we show that if the age of the lake is such that the lake water mass has been cycled over 30 times then the total dissolved gas equilibrates at about 2.5 liters (STP) of gas per kg of water; high enough to have important implications for drilling into this deep subglacial lake. Different air gases are preferentially incorporated into the clathrate and thus the molar ratios in the water column will reflect the presence of clathrate and indicate a more precise age of the lake. Preferential incorporation of CO2 into the clathrate would result in the clathrate sinking if the carbon input is 1% of the air input and the lake water is fresh water. The redox state of the lake is set by the high oxygen concentration which is 50 times more than air-equilibrated water and may be a severe biological stress. |
format |
Text |
author |
McKay, C. P. Hand, K. P. Doran, P. T. Andersen, D. T. Priscu, J. C. |
spellingShingle |
McKay, C. P. Hand, K. P. Doran, P. T. Andersen, D. T. Priscu, J. C. Clathrate formation and the fate of noble and biologically useful gases in Lake Vostok, Antarctica |
author_facet |
McKay, C. P. Hand, K. P. Doran, P. T. Andersen, D. T. Priscu, J. C. |
author_sort |
McKay, C. P. |
title |
Clathrate formation and the fate of noble and biologically useful gases in Lake Vostok, Antarctica |
title_short |
Clathrate formation and the fate of noble and biologically useful gases in Lake Vostok, Antarctica |
title_full |
Clathrate formation and the fate of noble and biologically useful gases in Lake Vostok, Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Clathrate formation and the fate of noble and biologically useful gases in Lake Vostok, Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Clathrate formation and the fate of noble and biologically useful gases in Lake Vostok, Antarctica |
title_sort |
clathrate formation and the fate of noble and biologically useful gases in lake vostok, antarctica |
publisher |
LSU Digital Commons |
publishDate |
2003 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/geo_pubs/664 https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL017490 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(106.000,106.000,-77.500,-77.500) |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet Lake Vostok |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet Lake Vostok |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Faculty Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/geo_pubs/664 doi:10.1029/2003GL017490 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL017490 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
30 |
container_issue |
13 |
_version_ |
1768380221259513856 |