Lake Joyce is a 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,...

 which lies along the northern side of 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...

 in Pearse Valley

Pearse Valley

Pearse Valley is an ice-free valley long, lying immediately west of Catspaw Glacier, at the south side of the Asgard Range in Victoria Land. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for John S. Pearse, biologist at McMurdo Station, 1961, and the season 1961-62....

, 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...

. It is 0.5 nautical mile (0.926 km)) long, 140 feet (42.7 m) deep and is covered by 22 feet (6.7 m) of very clear ice. The lake was studied by the New Zealand Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition (VUWAE) (1963–64) which named it after Ernest Joyce

Ernest Joyce

Ernest Edward Mills Joyce AM was a Royal Naval seaman and explorer who participated in four Antarctic expeditions during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, early in the early 20th century. He served under both Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton...

, a member of earlier British expeditions to the area led by Scott (1901–04) and Shackleton (1907–09).

The lake bottom is covered by thick microbial mat

Microbial mat

A microbial mat is a multi-layered sheet of micro-organisms, mainly bacteria and archaea. Microbial mats grow at interfaces between different types of material, mostly on submerged or moist surfaces but a few survive in deserts. They colonize environments ranging in temperature from –40°C to +120°C...

s, from which rise microbialite

Stromatolite

Stromatolites or stromatoliths are layered accretionary structures formed in shallow water by the trapping, binding and cementation of sedimentary grains by biofilms of microorganisms, especially cyanobacteria ....

 carbonate

Calcium carbonate

Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found in rocks in all parts of the world, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, coal balls, pearls, and eggshells. Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime,...

structures.