EXTERNAL LINKS
SEE ALSO
QUICK LINKS FOR
FOLLOW
- There are over 360 sub-glacial lakes known to exist beneath Antarctica’s vast ice sheet
- Subglacial lakes exist in most parts of the continent, because low levels of heat from the Earth’s interior is enough to melt the base of the ice sheet
- Melted water runs into hollows and valleys beneath the ice just as it does on the land surface to form lakes
- Some lakes are known to discharge their water from time to time, which can flow several hundred kilometers into other lakes
- Subglacial lakes are important because water acts as a lubricant to the ice above, which could influence how the ice sheet flows
- The potential for unusual life forms in subglacial lakes could shed new light on evolution of life in harsh conditions
- Subglacial lake-floor sediments could yield vital clues to past climate and could also help us understand the extraterrestrial environment of Europa (one of the moons of Jupiter)
- The water beneath the ice remains liquid because of small levels of heat from the Earth’s core coming up through bedrock and from the insulating effect of several kilometres of ice above
- The largest and most well known subglacial lake is Lake Vostok on East Antarctica
- Some subglacial lakes may be as old as the ice sheet. The age of the water within the lakes will be as old as the ice which melts into them, which in West Antarctica is around 150,000 years. Back to top
- Located on West Antarctic Ice Sheet about 70 km west of the Ellsworth Mountains at 78°58’34”S, 090°31’04”W
- Seismic studies reveal that this long narrow lake is approximately 150m deep and covers an area of 29 km2
- The lake is thought to be roughly the size of Lake Windermere in England
- Lake Ellsworth is a good place for exploration because it is far smaller than many other lakes, and so is easier to understand in detail. It is also well covered by logistic support, which makes the task of putting lots of heavy equipment to the site possible in future
- Lake Ellsworth, although likely to be younger than Lake Vostok is essentially the same environment, which means life living here will be able to survive in any other lake. The sediments on the floor of lake Ellsworth may tell us about the unknown history of this part of Antarctica
- Lake Ellsworth is named after Lincoln Ellsworth who made four expeditions to Antarctica between 1933 and 1939, using as his aircraft transporter and base a former Norwegian herring boat that he named Wyatt Earp after his hero
- Lake Ellsworth experiences some of the world's most extreme weather with wind chills reaching -70°C and wind gusts up to 100 miles per hour. Back to top
Factfile – the mission
- In the Antarctic summer of 2012 / 2013 a team of 10 British scientists and engineers will travel deep in to the heart of Antarctica to embark on an ambitious drilling project through 3km of ice
- The team will live and work on location for around 6 weeks
- This ground-breaking work will allow scientists, for the first time, to explore an untouched, hidden lake that promises to unlock secrets of the past and reveal vital clues to past climate change
- Working against the clock, the team will use a hot water drill to melt through the frozen ice sheet lying above the lake. After 24 hours of drilling they will probe the pristine environment of the lake and could discover life-forms cut off from the main line of evolution for millions of years
- A water-sampling probe will be lowered through a borehole to capture 50 ml samples from various points in the water column
- A highly specialised corer to recover sediment from the lake-floor will be deployed through the borehole
- They have just 60 hours to collect water and sediment samples before the bore hole re-freezes
- Re-freezing of the borehole will reduce its diameter by around 0.6 cm per hour. Back to top
- A continuous 3.4 km hose that is strong enough to support its own weight and that of the drill nozzle
- An industrial-sized 1.5MW boiler to heat 30,000 litres of hot water (90°C) for the drill
- Three large surface tanks (each with a 5 metre diameter) to store water above freezing point in temperatures as low as -20°C
- Several large-scale generators to provide electrical power to the drill
- The hot water drill will use and recycle the existing ice on site for the drilling fluid, minimising the potential for contamination of the lake. Back to top
