Ablation Lake

From Wikishire
Jump to: navigation, search

Ablation Lake is a proglacial tidal lake lying in Ablation Valley of Alexander Island, in the British Antarctic Territory. It is stratified with saline and fresh water and depths exceeding 380 feet.

The feature is dammed in the upper portion by ice that pushes into the lake from the adjacent George VI Ice Shelf.

The lake is named after Ablation Valley following British Antarctic Survey limnological research from 1973. The site lies within an Antarctic Specially Protected Area named 'Ablation Point – Ganymede Heights Antarctic Specially Protected Area'.[1]

The lake is up to 1,640 feet below the surface of the ice and has a sub-ice channel connecting it to George VI Sound, the channel separating Alexander Island from the mainland (Palmer Land).[2]

Location

See also

References

  1. "Ablation Valley and Ganymede Heights, Alexander Island". Management Plan for Antarctic Specially Protected Area No. 147: Measure 1. Antarctic Treaty Secretariat. 2002. http://www.ats.aq/documents/recatt/Att188_e.pdf. Retrieved 2013-09-11. 
  2. R.B. Heywood: 'A Limnological survey of the Ablation Point area, Alexander Island, Antarctica': Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, volume 279, issue 963, pages 39–54 (26 May 1977)
  • Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Ablation Lake