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Content to add to subglacial lakes group page
Note: anything remaining on this page has yet to be added to the main page.

Formation
Antarctic ice sheet exist due to low-level geothermal heating, enough the melt the ticker ice sheets. This ranges in order of 50mW/m2 in East Antarctica and 70mW/m2 in West Antarctica.

Subglacial lakes form at the ice and substratum boundary, where the environmental temperature is at the melting point of ice. Due to the overlaying mass of ice, this temperature varies slightly, generating a pool of water that is isolated from external changes for millions of years. Over time the overlaying ice sheet gradually melts at rates of few mm per year (Fahnestock et al. 2001). Water begins to flow from high to low hydraulic potential in regions of low hydraulic potential gradient.

Subglacial lakes may be connected to each other; this behavior will likely play an important role for biogeochemical processes leading to changes in microbial habitat, and nutrient flushing.

Weathering processes

 * Table 6.2

How are they observed/studied
Radar datasets help identify previously unexplored regions, and have been instrumental in measuring changes in ice surface elevation generated by movement of subglacial water.

Radio Echo Sounder (RES) have been frequently used to find Antarctic lakes, and led to the discovery of the first subglacial lake in Greenland.

Additional notes

 * In the published version, merge where and how they are formed.
 * re-name bathymetry to Anatomy

Antarctica
There are three reasons for studying Antarctic lakes


 * The Antarctic sub-glacial lakes are an important component of the basal hydrology that impacts ice sheet dynamics
 * They contain some of the most extreme habitats on Earth
 * Any sediments found in the lake could compile a high-resolution record of the ice sheet dynamics

Why are they important
(UPDATE) They help us better understand the dynamic relationships between water, ice and earth within a subglacial biome, are high-resolution record keepers for climate change spanning hundreds to thousands of years.

List of images to add to main page

 * Figure 1 this indicates major discoveries of sub-glacial lakes
 * Figure 2 This indicates locations of Antarctic subglacial lakes. Markers indicates various methodologies utilized to find the lake. Black/triangle = radio-echo sounding, yellow = seismic sounding, green = gravitational field mapping, red/circle = surface height change measurement, square = shape identified from ice surface feature.
 * Figure 4 This is a conceptual model of Greenland subglacial lake

Important articles for my section

 * section 6.4
 * Saline lakes
 * section 6.4
 * Saline lakes