Reassessing Lake Vostok’s behaviour from existing and new ice core data

Abstract

Interpretation of new ice core data and reappraisal of existing data, both from the basal part of the Vostok ice core, give strong support to a kind of thermohaline circulation in Lake Vostok. Although the salinity of the lake is considered as weak (less than 1‰), the prominent influence of salinity at high pressure and low temperature on water density makes such a circulation possible. As a consequence, subglacial melting along the northern shores of the lake is balanced, further south, by frazil ice production in the upper water column, its accretion and consolidation at the ice–water interface followed by accreted ice export out of the system together with the southeasterly glacier flow. The dynamics of the system is documented by a stable water isotope budget estimate, by inferences concerning accreted ice formation and by an investigation of ice properties at the transition between meteoric ice and accreted ice. This complex behaviour is the controlling factor on water, biota and sediment fluxes in the lake environment.