Annals of Glaciology (Sep 2021)
Scientific access into Mercer Subglacial Lake: scientific objectives, drilling operations and initial observations
- John C. Priscu,
- Jonas Kalin,
- John Winans,
- Timothy Campbell,
- Matthew R. Siegfried,
- Mark Skidmore,
- John E. Dore,
- Amy Leventer,
- David M. Harwood,
- Dennis Duling,
- Robert Zook,
- Justin Burnett,
- Dar Gibson,
- Edward Krula,
- Anatoly Mironov,
- Jim McManis,
- Graham Roberts,
- Brad E. Rosenheim,
- Brent C. Christner,
- Kathy Kasic,
- Helen A. Fricker,
- W. Berry Lyons,
- Joel Barker,
- Mark Bowling,
- Billy Collins,
- Christina Davis,
- Al Gagnon,
- Christopher Gardner,
- Chloe Gustafson,
- Ok-Sun Kim,
- Wei Li,
- Alex Michaud,
- Molly O. Patterson,
- Martyn Tranter,
- Ryan Venturelli,
- Trista Vick-Majors,
- Cooper Elsworth
Affiliations
- John C. Priscu
- ORCiD
- Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
- Jonas Kalin
- Antarctic Science Management Office, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
- John Winans
- Department of Computer Science, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA
- Timothy Campbell
- Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
- Matthew R. Siegfried
- ORCiD
- Department of Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA
- Mark Skidmore
- Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
- John E. Dore
- Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
- Amy Leventer
- Department of Geology, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, USA
- David M. Harwood
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
- Dennis Duling
- Antarctic Science Management Office, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
- Robert Zook
- Antarctic Science Management Office, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
- Justin Burnett
- Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Dar Gibson
- Antarctic Science Management Office, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
- Edward Krula
- Antarctic Science Management Office, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
- Anatoly Mironov
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
- Jim McManis
- Engineering and Science Research Support Facility, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA
- Graham Roberts
- Antarctic Science Management Office, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
- Brad E. Rosenheim
- College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, USA
- Brent C. Christner
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
- Kathy Kasic
- Communication Studies, California State University-Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, USA
- Helen A. Fricker
- Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
- W. Berry Lyons
- Department of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
- Joel Barker
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Mark Bowling
- Antarctic Science Management Office, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
- Billy Collins
- Communication Studies, California State University-Sacramento, Sacramento, CA, USA
- Christina Davis
- Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
- Al Gagnon
- Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Woods Hole, MA, USA
- Christopher Gardner
- Department of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
- Chloe Gustafson
- Swansea University, Swansea, UK
- Ok-Sun Kim
- Division of Life Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 21990, Republic of Korea
- Wei Li
- Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
- Alex Michaud
- Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME, USA
- Molly O. Patterson
- Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, USA
- Martyn Tranter
- School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Ryan Venturelli
- College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, USA
- Trista Vick-Majors
- ORCiD
- Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA
- Cooper Elsworth
- Descartes Labs, Sante Fe, NM, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2021.10
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 62
pp. 340 – 352
Abstract
The Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) Project accessed Mercer Subglacial Lake using environmentally clean hot-water drilling to examine interactions among ice, water, sediment, rock, microbes and carbon reservoirs within the lake water column and underlying sediments. A ~0.4 m diameter borehole was melted through 1087 m of ice and maintained over ~10 days, allowing observation of ice properties and collection of water and sediment with various tools. Over this period, SALSA collected: 60 L of lake water and 10 L of deep borehole water; microbes >0.2 μm in diameter from in situ filtration of ~100 L of lake water; 10 multicores 0.32–0.49 m long; 1.0 and 1.76 m long gravity cores; three conductivity–temperature–depth profiles of borehole and lake water; five discrete depth current meter measurements in the lake and images of ice, the lake water–ice interface and lake sediments. Temperature and conductivity data showed the hydrodynamic character of water mixing between the borehole and lake after entry. Models simulating melting of the ~6 m thick basal accreted ice layer imply that debris fall-out through the ~15 m water column to the lake sediments from borehole melting had little effect on the stratigraphy of surficial sediment cores.
Keywords
