Editor's Summary
20 April 2006
Taken at the flood
A hidden subglacial world consisting of more than 140 lakes lies beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. It is widely assumed that these lakes are a static ecosystem, cut off from each other and the rest of the world. Far from it, according to a 16-month study of surface elevation changes in the region. Changes indicating a rapid discharge of water from one lake to another were detected, and it is possible that the entire subglacial drainage basin is flushed through periodically by massive water transfers.
News: Lakes linked beneath Antarctic ice
Massive flows of water change perceptions of frozen continent.
Jim Giles
doi:10.1038/440977a
News and Views: Glaciology: Ice-sheet plumbing in Antarctica
It's not easy to work out what is going on beneath four kilometres of ice. But remote imaging has enabled the discovery of the long-distance discharge of water from one subglacial lake to another in Antarctica.
Garry K. C. Clarke
doi:10.1038/4401000a
Letter: Rapid discharge connects Antarctic subglacial lakes
Duncan J. Wingham, Martin J. Siegert, Andrew Shepherd and Alan S. Muir
doi:10.1038/nature04660
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