Campaign archives

Université Libre de Bruxelles - Glaciology Unit of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Réginald Lorrain, Suzanne Sleewaegen

• Antarctic campaign
• Begin date: dec 2000– end date: feb 2001
• Polar zone : Dry Valleys
• Title:Palaeoenvironmental records for EPICA
• Summary: This research-work is part of the EPICA project. It is conducted in collaboration with Dr. S. Fitzsimons (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand). Its main theme is the study of basal processes under cold-based glaciers in relation with frontal and marginal lakes.
  The basal part of polar ice sheets, as shown by the bottom section of deep ice cores or visible along the ice margins, exhibit debris-loaded ice layers, some of them being deformed. The classical models developed to explain debris incorporation at the base are inappropriate in the cases where the basal temperature is well below the freezing point. Several glaciers flowing into the Dry Valleys, although cold based, show in their basal part blocks of frozen sediments with primary structures still visible. These glaciers are in contact with lakes at their front or along their margin.
  The present research is conducted on three of these, located in Taylor Valley: Taylor Glacier (and Lake Bonney) and Suess Glacier (and Lake Popplewell) and in Wright Valley: Lower Wright Glacier (and Lake Brownworth).
  This year, the field work will be carried out on the latter site by a Belgo/New-zealand group composed of R. Lorrain and S. Sleewaegen from the University of Brussels (ULB), S. Fitzsimons and two co-workers from the University of Otago.
  A tunnel will be dug at the ice-bedrock interface from the north side of the glacier. This will allow to investigate the "basal ice layer" (BIL) of the glacier, not only from the cliffs limiting the glacier tongue but also below the ice mass itself.
  Sampling the BIL for its chemical characteristics, gas content and composition, ice-fabrics and for its stable isotope composition is the main purpose of the fieldwork. Ice cores and ice blocks will be retrieved from the glacier surface and from the tunnel, using a portable electro-mechanical drilling system. Lake ice and lake water will also be sampled in the adjacent Lake Brownworth. All the samples will be transferred in the frozen state to the cold laboratory in Brussels for further investigations.

Belgian projects

Participants : Réginald Lorrain, Suzanne Sleewaegen

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