Antarctica (global-adventures.us): An ancient lake buried beneath 2.1 miles (3.4 kilometers) of Antarctic ice will be the first subglacial lake to be measured and sampled through space-industry standard ‘clean technology’ (Global Adventures reported here). In the quest to yield new knowledge about the evolution of life on Earth and other planets, scientists have been planning for more than 15 years to access Lake Ellsworth, one of about 400 known subglacial lakes in Antarctica. Utilizing the short Antarctic summer, an advance party of four British Antarctic Survey (BAS) engineers did set up a base camp with nearly 70 tones of equipment and supplies to allow researchers to continue the ambitious project later in 2012.
“Lake Ellsworth is extremely remote, cold and hostile - ambient temperatures dropped to −35°C [minus 31 degrees]and with wind chill they dropped further still making living and working on site a physical challenge,” said Andy Tait, a hot water drill designer and engineer from BAS. “We deliberately located the equipment over a kilometer [almost a mile] from the drill site to protect it during the harsh Antarctic winter. We will move it to its final position and set up the rig ready for drilling in December. Severe winds and the extreme environmental conditions of the area 
made it vital that we spent a number of days winterizing the equipment. Windblown snow will partially bury the equipment and this area of Antarctica is so vast that it would be difficult to find it again without the GPS locators we fitted at the corners of the site. Going back to live there for three months in November will certainly be an experience!”
A science and engineering team plans to collect lake-bed sediments that could provide vital clues about the Earth’s past climate. Through a bore hole, drilled using high-pressure hot water, the team will lower a titanium probe to measure and sample the water, followed by a corer to extract sediment from the lake. They hope that analysis of the sediments will reveal clues of microbial life and help to assess the present-day stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the likely consequences for future sea-level rise.
“Working within the short Antarctic summer season adds pressure to our time on the continent, which is why we had to plan two stages of the program,” says Chris Hill, advance party member and Lake Ellsworth program Manager at BAS. “The drilling season is nearly upon us, and we still have a long way to go before we can access Lake Ellsworth, but the success of the Advance Party this season certainly puts us in a good position for November.”
More than 400 subglacial lakes have so far been discovered beneath Antarctica’s vast ice sheet. The most well-known of these is Lake Vostok in East Antarctica. A Russian team hopes to penetrate and collect samples from this lake soon.
“This year we will complete and test both the water sampling probe and the sediment corer,” said Martin Siegert, Lake Ellsworth Program Principal Investigator and a Professor with the University of Edinburgh. “Extracted sediment samples could give us an important insight in to the ancient history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, including past collapse, which would have implications for future sea level rise.”
An advance party moved nearly 70 tones of equipment and supplies to a base camp near the lake, named for the American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth. Photo: British Antarctic Survey
