A 60-year international history of Antarctic subglacial lake exploration

Abstract

In January 2013, the US WISSARD programme measured and sampled Lake Whillans, a subglacial water body at the edge of West Antarctica, in a clean and environmentally sensitive manner, proving the existence of microbial life beneath this part of the ice sheet. The success of WISSARD represented benchmark in the exploration of Antarctica, made possible by a rich and diverse history of events, discoveries and discussions over the past 60 years; ranging from geophysical measurement of subglacial lakes, to the development of scientific hypotheses concerning these environments and the engineering solutions required to test them. In this article, I provide a personal account of this history, from the published literature and my own involvement in subglacial lake exploration over the last 20 years. I show that our ability to directly measure and sample subglacial water bodies in Antarctica has been made possible by a strong theme of international collaboration, at odds with the media representation of a scientific 'race' between nations. I also consider plans for subglacial lake exploration and discuss how such collaboration is likely to be key to success of future research in this field.

Characteristics, Main Impacts, and Stewardship of Natural and Artificial Freshwater Environments: Consequences for Biodiversity Conservation

“…Many, but not all, of these were created during the ice-sheet retreat following the last glacial maximum (e.g., [441]). In addition, substantial supra-glacial [442] and subglacial [443] freshwater ecosystems are now recognized, and while both are known to support microbial ecosystems, as yet they are insufficiently surveyed to allow biogeographic inferences to be made (e.g., [444]).…”

Exo-Ocean Exploration with Deep-Sea Sensor and Platform Technologies

“…The NASA-funded cryobot named VALKYRIE, developed at Stone Aerospace (Texas, USA), consists of a laser beamed down to a fiber optic cable as a heat source to melt the ice, and it was successfully tested in an Alaskan glacier (Stone et al, 2014(Stone et al, , 2018. Insights on potential pitfalls and issues related to the penetration of ice shells could be gained from the results of similar trials carried out in Antarctic subglacial lakes (Siegert, 2018). In particular, Lake Vostok might be one of the best examples to be compared to the exploration of exooceans by being separated from the rest of Earth's atmosphere by a 4 km thick ice layer, which had to be drilled in order to access the liquid water (Siegert et al, 2016).…”

Governance of the Exploration of Subglacial Antarctica

“…The outcomes of the three exploration missions have been discussed previously (Siegert, 2018). Lake Vostok was accessed by the ice core drill in February 2012, though contamination of retrieved samples remained an issue.…”

“…As subglacial lake research is in its infancy (despite having a 60 year history, Siegert, 2018), evidence necessary to demonstrate the scientific value of subglacial aqueous environments is only just beginning to form. At the moment, for the exploration of likely ancient systems beneath the center of the ice sheet, the international community agrees that strict adherence to the SCAR Code of Conduct be upheld by the CEP through assessment of CEEs.…”