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Concept
Subglacial lake
Summary
A subglacial lake is a lake that is found under a glacier, typically beneath an ice cap or ice sheet. Subglacial lakes form at the boundary between ice and the underlying bedrock, where gravitational pressure decreases the pressure melting point of ice. Over time, the overlying ice gradually melts at a rate of a few millimeters per year. Meltwater flows from regions of high to low hydraulic pressure under the ice and pools, creating a body of liquid water that can be isolated from the external environment for millions of years.
Since the first discoveries of subglacial lakes under the Antarctic Ice Sheet, more than 400 subglacial lakes have been discovered in Antarctica, beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, and under Iceland's Vatnajökull ice cap. Subglacial lakes contain a substantial proportion of Earth's liquid freshwater, with the volume of Antarctic subglacial lakes alone estimated to be about 10,000 km3, or about 15% of all liquid freshwater on Earth.
As ecosystems isolated from Earth's atmosphere, subglacial lakes are influenced by interactions between ice, water, sediments, and organisms. They contain active biological communities of extremophilic microbes that are adapted to cold, low-nutrient conditions and facilitate biogeochemical cycles independent of energy inputs from the sun. Subglacial lakes and their inhabitants are of particular interest in the field of astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life.
The water in subglacial lakes remains liquid since geothermal heating balances the heat loss at the ice surface. The pressure from the overlying glacier causes the melting point of water to be below 0 °C. The ceiling of the subglacial lake will be at the level where the pressure melting point of water intersects with the temperature gradient. In Lake Vostok, the largest Antarctic subglacial lake, the ice over the lake is thus much thicker than the ice sheet around it. Hypersaline subglacial lakes remain liquid due to their salt content.
Not all lakes with permanent ice cover can be called subglacial, as some are covered by regular lake ice.
Official source
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