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, part 2
• Summary: This research-work is conducted in collaboration with Dr. S. Fitzsimons (University of Otago, Dunedin, NZ) and is devoted to the study of the debris-rich basal part of cold glaciers. As the classical models developed to explain debris incorporation at the base are inappropriate in the case where the basal temperature is well below the freezing point, there is a need for better understanding the processes operating at the glacier bed. This is particularly important for deciphering the bottom part of the different deep ice cores retrieved or to be retrieved from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. In this perspective, the role of subglacial lakes has to be taken into account. That is the reason why the present work draws special attention to glaciers which are in contact with lakes at their front or along their margin. Several sites have been investigated during previous field trips: 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 has been carried out on Victoria Upper Glacier and Victoria Upper Lake (Victoria Valley) by a belgo-new-zealand group composed of R. Lorrain and D. Samyn from the University of Brussels (ULB), S. Fitzsimons and two co-workers from the University of Otago.
  A tunnel has been dug at the ice-substratum interface from the front of the glacier near the contact zone with the lake. Ice blocks have been retrieved from this tunnel as well as from the glacier terminus (apron). Lake ice has also been sampled in the adjacent Victoria Upper Lake. After being transferred in the frozen state to the cold laboratory in Brussels, these samples will be analysed for their isotopic, chemical and gas content, gas composition and textural characteristics. Thickness measurements have also been carried out thanks to an Ice Penetrating Radar survey on the top surface of the glacier.
  

Belgian projects

Participants : Réginald Lorrain, Suzanne Sleewaegen

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