As some of you may know , theAntarctic continentisn’t just ice rink all the way through . Although its surface is around 98 percent covered in fixed water , the stay 2 percentage give a little hint as to what may lie down below . Back in the Cretaceous period , when the non - avian dinosaurs still rule the world , Antarctica was covered in thick , warm forest , progress on a self-colored bedrock full of valley , river , canyon , passel , andlakes .
Three unexampled study focalize on the westerly subglacial Lake Whillans jointly bring out it to be a complex place ; a wetland - similar surround with both fresh and salty water , with rivers flowing from it across huge stretchability of the southern continent . Beneath 800 meters ( 2,600 foot ) of thick ice lie a rightfully unique world isolated from the surface by up to 1 million class – one whose existent liquid lake could be astonishingly untried .
“ This subglacial environment is analogous to a non - vegetated wetland within a terrestrial coastal knit stitch , ” the authors of one of the studies , published inEarth and Planetary Science Letters(EPSL ) , write . “ The lacustrine ( lake ) chronicle of the site is short , probably on the parliamentary procedure of tenner . ”
Back in 2013 , researchers were overjoyed when they remove an frappe core from Lake Whillans and found that it contained130,000 cellsper ml of subglacial lake body of water – roughly the same density of spirit that is find in the darkest depths of the oceans . Despite not having seen sunshine for a century , life still existedat these frigid depths .
Until now , though , these researchers – many of which are part of the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling ( WISSARD ) project – did n’t have a good idea as to what the ballad of the dry land down there was like . A ternary of unexampled papers have now relieve some of the mystery , with the first , write inGeophysical Research Letters , describing its drainage system .
A lake within an ice-skating rink cave in Iceland . Lake Whillans may look something like this . vichie81 / Shutterstock
Global Positioning System ( GPS ) data point gathered over five old age from investigator at the University of California , San Diego , reveal that the lake drain periodically for several month , rather than continuously . When it does , the methamphetamine above becomes more tricky and can move around 4 pct faster than it commonly would .
The EPSL study , led by researchers from Northern Illinois University , spotlight that this flow water move around very easy , so slowly in fact that it does n’t have enough vigor to move many sediment around . Not only does this mean that the bedrock there has barely alter over time , but the whole lake resembles a wetland within a coastal plain , like those along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico .
unco , they also paint a picture that the lake has only been this way for several decades . The last paper , publish in the journalGeologyand led by researchers at Montana State University , close from its own aqueous analysis that this fluent water is mostly come from the very recent melt of the groundwork of the overlying ice , with a minor contribution from saltwater trapped beneath it during a warmer , interglacial period .
All in all , Lake Whillans is a dynamic , paradoxically ancient and young surroundings like no other , and these newfangled studies but scratch the aerofoil of this cryptic hidden realm . In any pillowcase , there ’s plenty more out there to investigate , as this lake is in reality just one of nearly 400 others hide beneath the ice .
