Scientific access into Mercer Subglacial Lake: Scientific objectives, drilling operations and initial observations

Authors

John C. Priscu, Montana State University
Jonas Kalin, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
John Winans, Northern Illinois University
Timothy Campbell, Montana State University
Matthew R. Siegfried, Colorado School of Mines
Mark Skidmore, Montana State University
Trista J. Vick‐Majors, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
et. al.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-8-2021

Department

Department of Biological Sciences

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.

Publisher's Statement

© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2021.10

Publication Title

Annals of Glaciology

Recommended Citation

Priscu, J., Kalin, J., Winans, J., Campbell, T., Siegfried, M., Skidmore, M., Vick‐Majors, T. J., & et. al. (2021). Scientific access into Mercer Subglacial Lake: Scientific objectives, drilling operations and initial observations. Annals of Glaciology. http://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2021.10
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/15053

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Version

Publisher's PDF