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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 4: Climate; jointly with Arbeitsgruppe Junge DPG (AGjDPG)

UP 4.3: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 15:15–15:45, HSZ 201

Subglacial lakes in Antarctica: Origin, Fate and Relevance — •Malte Thoma¹, Sebastian Göller², Klaus Grosfeld², and Christoph Mayer¹ — ¹Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Commission for Glaciology, München, Germany — ²Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

One of the most remote and undiscovered regions on Earth are subglacial lakes in Antarctica. More than 300 of these lakes have been identified so far. The probably largest of these lakes is Lake Vostok, which is about 250 km long, 50 km wide, and up to 1 km deep, covering an area of 16000 km² (30x Lake Constance) and a volume of 5000 km³ (100x Lake Constance). According to the pressure-dependent freezing point of water and the semi-empirical Equation of State, the water circulates within these lakes. This flow is geo-thermally and buoyancy (by melt and freeze processes) driven. We present an overview of mapped and modelled lakes within Antarctica, their impact on the ice flow/motion, hypothesis about a hydrological network, as well as their contribution to the total Antarctic fresh water budget.