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Lake Bonney (Antarctica)
Encyclopedia
Saline water
Saline water is a general term for water that contains a significant concentration of dissolved salts . The concentration is usually expressed in parts per million of salt....
lake
Lake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
with permanent ice cover at the western end of Taylor Valley
Taylor Valley
Taylor Valley is the southern one of the three large Dry Valleys in the Transantarctic Mountains, Victoria Land, located west of McMurdo Sound at approximately . The valley extends from Taylor Glacier in the west to McMurdo Sound at Explorers Cove at the northwest head of New Harbour in the east...
in the McMurdo Dry Valleys
McMurdo Dry Valleys
The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of snow-free valleys in Antarctica located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound. The region is one of the world's most extreme deserts, and includes many interesting features including Lake Vida and the Onyx River, Antarctica's longest river.-Climate:The Dry...
of Victoria Land
Victoria Land
Victoria Land is a region of Antarctica bounded on the east by the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea and on the west by Oates Land and Wilkes Land. It was discovered by Captain James Clark Ross in January 1841 and named after the UK's Queen Victoria...
, Antarctica.
It is 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long and up to 900 metres (2,952.8 ft) wide. A narrow channel only 50 metres (164 ft) wide (Lake Bonney at Narrows) separates the lake into East Lake Bonney (3.32 square kilometre) and West Lake Bonney (0.99 square kilometre).
To the north and south of the lake lie peaks that are over 1500 metres (4,921.3 ft) above sea level, and the Taylor Glacier
Taylor Glacier
The Taylor Glacier is an Antarctic glacier about long, flowing from the plateau of Victoria Land into the western end of Taylor Valley, north of the Kukri Hills, south of the Asgard Range...
is positioned to the west of the lake. It is 130 feet (39.6 m) deep and is perpetually trapped under 12 to 15 ft (3.7 to 4.6 m) of ice.
It was first visited by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904
Discovery Expedition
The British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, generally known as the Discovery Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage sixty years earlier...
. It was named by the Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
expedition of 1910-1913
Terra Nova Expedition
The Terra Nova Expedition , officially the British Antarctic Expedition 1910, was led by Robert Falcon Scott with the objective of being the first to reach the geographical South Pole. Scott and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, to find that a Norwegian team led by Roald...
, for Thomas George Bonney
Thomas George Bonney
Thomas George Bonney FRS was an English geologist.-Career:Bonney was the eldest son of the Reverend Thomas Bonney, master of Rugeley Grammar School...
, professor of geology at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
, England from 1877 to 1901.
Lake Bonney is one of the main lakes studied by the National Science Foundations, McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research site.
Starting in 2007 NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
is funding an autonomous submersible robot called ENDURANCE
Endurance
Endurance is the ability for a human or animal to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time, as well as its ability to resist, withstand, recover from, and have immunity to trauma, wounds, or fatigue. In humans, it is usually used in aerobic or anaerobic exercise...
to explore the water volume of the lake to study its shape and ecology. The robot is built by Stone Aerospace who also developed the DEPTHX
DEPTHX
The Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer is an autonomous underwater vehicle, designed to explore deep underwater caves. It is purported to be the most advanced robotic vehicle of its kind on Earth. Its primary function is observation, with an array of sonar sensors all around its flattened spheroid hull...
submersible. The Endurance Project is led by Peter Doran
Peter Doran
Peter Doran, Ph.D. is Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.Doran specializes in polar regions, especially Antarctic climate and ecosystems. Doran was the lead author of a research paper about Antarctic temperatures that was published in the journal...
with Bill Stone (caver) and John Priscu among the co-investigators. Scientists have discovered an ancient ecosystem beneath the Taylor Glacier
Taylor Glacier
The Taylor Glacier is an Antarctic glacier about long, flowing from the plateau of Victoria Land into the western end of Taylor Valley, north of the Kukri Hills, south of the Asgard Range...
, next to Lake Bonney. This ecosystem survives by transforming sulfur and iron compounds for growth.
The work is seen as a stage in developing an autonomous submersible robot that could explore the ocean on Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
's moon Europa
Europa (moon)
Europa Slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, Europa is primarily made of silicate rock and probably has an iron core. It has a tenuous atmosphere composed primarily of oxygen. Its surface is composed of ice and is one of the smoothest in the Solar System. This surface is striated by cracks and...
.
Tributaries
Lake Bonney is fed by a number of meltwater streams :- Bartlette Creek
- Bohner Stream
- Doran Stream (feeding Priscu Stream)
- Lawson Creek
- Lizotte Creek
- Lyons Creek
- Mason Creek
- Priscu Stream (the longest with 3.8 km)
- Red River
- Santa Fe Stream
- Sharp Creek
- Vincent Creek
See also
- Blood FallsBlood FallsBlood Falls is an outflow of an iron oxide-tainted plume of saltwater, occurring at the tongue of the Taylor Glacier onto the ice-covered surface of West Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Victoria Land, East Antarctica....
, an outflow of the tip of the Taylor GlacierTaylor GlacierThe Taylor Glacier is an Antarctic glacier about long, flowing from the plateau of Victoria Land into the western end of Taylor Valley, north of the Kukri Hills, south of the Asgard Range...
containing an iron oxide tainted plume of melting salty water flowing onto the ice-covered surface of Lake Bonney.