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Water exchange between the subglacial Lake Vostok and the overlying ice sheet

Nature volume 403, pages 643–646 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

It has now been known for several years that a 200-km-long lake, called Lake Vostok, lies beneath the ice sheet on which sits Vostok Station in Antarctica1,2,3,4,5. The conditions at the base of the ice sheet above this subglacial lake can provide information about the environment within the lake, including the likelihood that it supports life2. Here we present an analysis of the ice-sheet structure from airborne 60-MHz radar studies, which indicates that distinct zones of basal ice loss and accretion occur at the ice–water interface. Subglacial melting and net ice loss occur in the north of the lake and across its 200-km-long western margin, whereas about 150 m of ice is gained by subglacial freezing in the south. This indicates that significant quantities of water are exchanged between the base of the ice sheet and the lake waters, which will enrich the lake with gas hydrates, cause sediment deposition and encourage circulation of the lake water.

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Figure 1: Surface elevation and velocity of the ice sheet above Lake Vostok, and positions of radar flightlines.
Figure 2: Airborne 60-MHz radar data used in the analysis of internal layering above Lake Vostok.
Figure 3: Analysis of internal layers extracted from airborne 60-MHz radar data from Lake Vostok.

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Acknowledgements

The radar data presented in this paper were collected in the 1970s by the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI, University of Cambridge), the Technical University of Denmark, and the US National Science Foundation. We thank the director of the SPRI for supporting this work. We also thank F. Carsey, J. R. Petit and C. Ellis-Evans for comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1SS, UK

    Martin J. Siegert

  2. California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, 91109, California, USA

    Ron Kwok

  3. Department of Geophysics, Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Christoph Mayer

  4. Centre for Glaciology, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth , SY23 3DB, UK

    Bryn Hubbard

Authors
  1. Martin J. Siegert
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  2. Ron Kwok
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  4. Bryn Hubbard
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Correspondence to Martin J. Siegert.

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Siegert, M., Kwok, R., Mayer, C. et al. Water exchange between the subglacial Lake Vostok and the overlying ice sheet. Nature 403, 643–646 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35001049

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