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Glacial boulders ‘floating’ on the ice cover of Lake Untersee, East Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2004

Ulrich Wand  and
James Perlt
Ulrich Wand
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Research Unit Potsdam, Telegrafenberg A43, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany
James Perlt
Affiliation:
Institut für Planetare Geodäsie, Technische Universität Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, Germany
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Abstract

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Large glacial boulders, up to several metres in diameter, resting on the lake ice are a remarkable feature of Lake Untersee (71°21'S, 13°28'E), an ice-dammed, perennially frozen freshwater lake in the Ottovon-Gruber-Gebirge (Gruber Mountains) of central Queen Maud Land, East Antarctica. A geodetic survey of such ice-rafted boulders was made over two summer seasons to determine the direction and velocity of their movement. They are transported between 3.9 and 11.1 m annually and the residence time of the boulders is estimated at approximately 500 years. Lake Untersee must have been permanently covered with lake ice for at least that long.

Keywords

Antarcticaglacial bouldersglacial geomorphologylake ice
Type
Papers—Earth Sciences and Glaciology
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 1999 , pp. 256 - 260
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 1999