Reassessing Lake Vostok’s behaviour from existing and new ice core data

• Published in: Earth and Planetary Science Letters
• Main Authors: Souchez, R., Petit, J.-R., Jouzel, J., de Angelis, M., Tison, J.-L.
• Other Authors: Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables (GLACCIOS), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA))
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2004
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; Lake Vostok; ice core
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03109897; https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(03)00588-0

International audience Interpretation of new ice core data and reappraisal of existing data, both from the basal part of the Vostok ice core, give strong support to a kind of thermohaline circulation in Lake Vostok. Although the salinity of the lake is considered as weak (less than 1‰), the prominent influence of salinity at high pressure and low temperature on water density makes such a circulation possible. As a consequence, subglacial melting along the northern shores of the lake is balanced, further south, by frazil ice production in the upper water column, its accretion and consolidation at the ice–water interface followed by accreted ice export out of the system together with the southeasterly glacier flow. The dynamics of the system is documented by a stable water isotope budget estimate, by inferences concerning accreted ice formation and by an investigation of ice properties at the transition between meteoric ice and accreted ice. This complex behaviour is the controlling factor on water, biota and sediment fluxes in the lake environment.