Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

ProfessorMartinSiegert

Faculty of Natural Sciences, The Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Visiting Professor
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 9666m.siegert Website

 
 
//

Assistant

 

Ms Gosia Gayer +44 (0)20 7594 9666

 
//

Location

 

Grantham Directors OfficeSherfield BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

//

Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@inbook{Kennicutt:2013:10.1002/9781118670354.ch1,
author = {Kennicutt, MC and Siegert, MJ},
booktitle = {Antarctic Subglacial Aquatic Environments},
doi = {10.1002/9781118670354.ch1},
pages = {1--7},
title = {Subglacial Aquatic Environments: A Focus of 21st Century Antarctic Science},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118670354.ch1},
year = {2013}
}
Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - CHAP
AB  - In 1996, growing evidence suggested a massive lake of liquid water had pooled beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. This feature became known as "Lake Vostok." Early on, two hypotheses were posed: the lake contained microbial life that had evolved over millions of years in isolation beneath the ice and lake sediments contained records of past climate change obtainable nowhere else in Antarctica. Many subglacial lakes, in a number of locales, have been identified, suggesting that studies at multiple locations will be needed to fully understand the importance of subglacial aquatic environments. As of 2010, more than 300 lakes have been identified; this will increase as surveys improve spatial coverage. Given the likely pristine nature of these environs and the low levels of microbial life expected, exploration must be done in a manner that causes minimal impact or contamination. It has been shown that many of these lakes are part of an active, sub-ice hydrological system that experiences rapid water flow events over time frames of months, weeks, and even days.Microbial life in subglacial environments has been inferred, and is expected, but it has yet to be directly confirmed by in situ sampling. Current understanding of subglacial environments is incomplete and will only be improved when these subglacial environments are entered and sampled, which is projected to occur in the next few years. This book synthesizes current understanding of subglacial environments and the plans for their exploration as a benchmark for future discoveries.
AU  - Kennicutt,MC
AU  - Siegert,MJ
DO  - 10.1002/9781118670354.ch1
EP  - 7
PY  - 2013///
SN  - 9780875904825
SP  - 1
TI  - Subglacial Aquatic Environments: A Focus of 21st Century Antarctic Science
T1  - Antarctic Subglacial Aquatic Environments
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118670354.ch1
ER  -
Download