The life and death of a subglacial lake in West Antarctica

Author:

Siegfried M.R.1,Venturelli R.A.2,Patterson M.O.3,Arnuk W.3,Campbell T.D.4,Gustafson C.D.5,Michaud A.B.6,Galton-Fenzi B.K.789,Hausner M.B.10,Holzschuh S.N.1,Huber B.11,Mankoff K.D.121314,Schroeder D.M.1516,Summers P.T.15,Tyler S.17,Carter S.P.18,Fricker H.A.5,Harwood D.M.19,Leventer A.20,Rosenheim B.E.21,Skidmore M.L.4,Priscu J.C.22,

Affiliation:

1. 1Hydrologic Science & Engineering Program, Department of Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA

2. 2Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA

3. 3Department of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York 13902, USA

4. 4Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717, USA

5. 5Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA

6. 6Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, Maine 04544, USA

7. 7Australian Antarctic Division, Kingston, TAS 7050, Australia

8. 8Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, Institute for Marine & Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia

9. 9Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia

10. 10Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada 89512, USA

11. 11Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964, USA

12. 12Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark

13. 13Business Integra, New York, New York 10001, USA

14. 14NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York 10025, USA

15. 15Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

16. 16Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

17. 17Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557, USA

18. 18Physical Sciences Department, San Diego City College, San Diego, California 92101, USA

19. 19Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA

20. 20Department of Geology, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York 13346, USA

21. 21College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701, USA

22. 22Polar Oceans Research Group, Sheridan, Montana 59749, USA

Abstract

Abstract Over the past 50 years, the discovery and initial investigation of subglacial lakes in Antarctica have highlighted the paleoglaciological information that may be recorded in sediments at their beds. In December 2018, we accessed Mercer Subglacial Lake, West Antarctica, and recovered the first in situ subglacial lake-sediment record—120 mm of finely laminated mud. We combined geophysical observations, image analysis, and quantitative stratigraphy techniques to estimate long-term mean lake sedimentation rates (SRs) between 0.49 ± 0.12 mm a–1 and 2.3 ± 0.2 mm a–1, with a most likely SR of 0.68 ± 0.08 mm a–1. These estimates suggest that this lake formed between 53 and 260 a before core recovery (BCR), with a most likely age of 180 ± 20 a BCR—coincident with the stagnation of the nearby Kamb Ice Stream. Our work demonstrates that interconnected subglacial lake systems are fundamentally linked to larger-scale ice dynamics and highlights that subglacial sediment archives contain powerful, century-scale records of ice history and provide a modern process-based analogue for interpreting paleo–subglacial lake facies.

Publisher

Geological Society of America

Subject

Geology

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