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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Online Access: | http://dro.dur.ac.uk/26623/ http://dro.dur.ac.uk/26623/1/26623.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 |
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ftunivdurham:oai:dro.dur.ac.uk.OAI2:26623 2023-05-15T13:48:01+02:00 Evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an Antarctic subglacial lake. Smith, Andrew M. Woodward, John Ross, Neil Bentley, Michael J. Hodgson, Dominic A. Siegert, Martin J. King, Edward C. 2018-10-18 application/pdf http://dro.dur.ac.uk/26623/ http://dro.dur.ac.uk/26623/1/26623.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 unknown Elsevier dro:26623 issn:0012-821X doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 http://dro.dur.ac.uk/26623/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 http://dro.dur.ac.uk/26623/1/26623.pdf © 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 Earth and planetary science letters, 2018, Vol.504, pp.139-151 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Article PeerReviewed 2018 ftunivdurham https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 2020-06-04T22:25:09Z 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 Ice Sheet Durham University: Durham Research Online Antarctic The Antarctic Earth and Planetary Science Letters 504 139 151 |
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Open Polar |
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Durham University: Durham Research Online |
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ftunivdurham |
language |
unknown |
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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Smith, Andrew M. Woodward, John Ross, Neil Bentley, Michael J. Hodgson, Dominic A. Siegert, Martin J. King, Edward C. |
spellingShingle |
Smith, Andrew M. Woodward, John Ross, Neil Bentley, Michael J. Hodgson, Dominic A. Siegert, Martin J. King, Edward C. Evidence for the long-term sedimentary environment in an Antarctic subglacial lake. |
author_facet |
Smith, Andrew M. Woodward, John Ross, Neil Bentley, Michael J. Hodgson, Dominic A. Siegert, Martin J. King, Edward C. |
author_sort |
Smith, Andrew M. |
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://dro.dur.ac.uk/26623/ http://dro.dur.ac.uk/26623/1/26623.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Earth and planetary science letters, 2018, Vol.504, pp.139-151 [Peer Reviewed Journal] |
op_relation |
dro:26623 issn:0012-821X doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 http://dro.dur.ac.uk/26623/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.011 http://dro.dur.ac.uk/26623/1/26623.pdf |
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_ |
1766248420301864960 |