Lake Water Mass Research Articles

Formation and Outburst of the Toguz-Bulak Glacial Lake in the Northern Teskey Range, Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan

In Kyrgyzstan, outburst flood disasters from glacial lakes are increasing. An example is the sudden drainage on 8 August 2019 of the Toguz-Bulak glacial lake in the Tosor river basin of the northern Tien Shan region. In this study, we used remote sensing and field surveys to examine the reasons for the outburst. We found that the lake area changed from 0.021 km² to 0.002 km2 due to the outburst, in which most of the initial 130,000 m3 of water discharged within four hours. In examining the longer-term behavior of this lake, we found that from 2010 through 2019, it appears in June and disappears in September every year. Its maximum area occurs in late July and early August. With the expansion of the lake basin between 2010 and 2019, the lake also increased greatly in size, particularly so in the three years before the outburst, linked to high summer temperatures and the resulting higher inflow of glacier meltwater, finally leading to the sudden drainage in 2019. Before this outburst, a 2-m high moraine dam retained the lake. Continuously inflowing meltwater and the related increasing pressure by the lake water mass eventually broke the moraine dam. Satellite radar interferometry revealed active displacement fringes in the lake basin and moraine dam due to the melting and subsidence of buried ice. An analysis using digital elevation models from 1964 and 2010 also confirms the surface lowering in the lake basin by up to 8.5 m and on the moraine dam by 2 m. Such lowering of the proglacial moraine complex destabilized the moraine dam.

Evaluation of Airborne Organic Pollutants in a Pyrenean Glacial Lake (The Sabocos Tarn)

Mountain lakes are excellent indicators for airborne organic pollutant transport and accumulation studies. However, very few studies have been focused on lake water mass. Also, there is a lack of studies performed after 2004–2009 period when the enforcement of most international organic pollutant banning policies (e.g., The Stockholm convention) occurred. We report concentration of 66 different semi-volatile organic compounds (SOCs) in the Sabocos tarn water mass (a Spanish Pyrenees cirque glacial lake) from 2011 to 2014. Analyzed SOCs include compounds of current and past use with different sources (i.e., current and historic-use pesticides, industrial and urban-use compounds, and combustion by-products) and chemical properties (i.e., volatility, water solubility, and persistence in the environment). Most banned chemicals such as dichlorodiphenyl trichloroetanes (DDTs), aldrins, most polybromodiphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners, endosulfans, triazine, and simazine were detected in consistently low concentrations. In contrast, chemicals still in use such as BDE-209, terbutilazine, diuron, metolachlor, and chlorpyrifos were found in higher and more variable amounts. Polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were high as compared to previous studies in other Pyrenean and European lakes suggesting airborne pollution from nearby anthropogenic sources. Overall, levels of hexacyclohexanes (HCHs) during most of the sampling period were low according to other studies in similar environments. However, the Sabocos water mass recorded a concentration peak of some HCH isomers in summer 2014 related with the HCH residues transfer operation at the nearby (20 km) Bailin landfill site (Sabinanigo, Spain).

Long-term variability of oxygen and mineral phosphorus concentrations in Lake Dal’nee (Kamchatka)

Many-year data on the concentrations of O2 and mineral phosphorus in a fattening-spawning water body for the Pacific salmon (red salmon) are presented; the seasonal and year-to-year dynamics of these con-centrations are analyzed. It is found that the lake water mass features a high concentration of O2, the upper 20-m layer being most aerated. It is shown that the year-to-year variability of the concentration of O2 dissolved in the lake water depends on the amount of organic matter coming with groundwater and surface runoff. The oxygen and phosphorus regimes of the lake at low and abundant entries of puberal red salmon for spawning are considered.

Clathrate formation and the fate of noble and biologically useful gases in Lake Vostok, Antarctica

Lake Vostok is a large lake located 4 km beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that should be supersaturated with dissolved gases in equilibrium with clathrate present in the water column. Here we show that if the age of the lake is such that the lake water mass has been cycled over 30 times then the total dissolved gas equilibrates at about 2.5 liters (STP) of gas per kg of water; high enough to have important implications for drilling into this deep subglacial lake. Different air gases are preferentially incorporated into the clathrate and thus the molar ratios in the water column will reflect the presence of clathrate and indicate a more precise age of the lake. Preferential incorporation of CO2 into the clathrate would result in the clathrate sinking if the carbon input is 1% of the air input and the lake water is fresh water. The redox state of the lake is set by the high oxygen concentration which is 50 times more than air‐equilibrated water and may be a severe biological stress.

Groundwater contribution to the water and chemical budgets of Williams Lake, Minnesota, 1980–1991

Groundwater seepage was the largest annual flux of water into (58–76%) and out of (73–83%) Williams Lake during a 12-year study, during which the entire volume of the lake was replaced four times. The only other water fluxes to and from the lake, which has no surface-water inlet or outlet, were atmospheric precipitation and evaporation. Nearly all of the annual input of calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, chloride, sulfate, and silica was provided by groundwater. Although much of the calcium and most of the silica input was retained in the lake, this retention did not result in increased chemical mass in the lake water mass because biologically mediated removal of calcium and silica to the sediments equaled or exceeded loss by lake seepage to groundwater. Groundwater represented as much as one-half the annual hydrological input of phosphorus and nitrogen; the remainder was supplied by atmospheric precipitation. From about 70 to 90% of the annual input of phosphorus and nitrogen was retained in the lake. Although water and chemical fluxes varied from year to year, interaction of the lake with groundwater determined the hydrological and chemical characteristics of Williams Lake.

FAYETTEVILLE GREEN LAKE, NEW YORK. I. PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL LIMNOLOGY1

A new bathymetric map of Fayetteville Green Lake, New York, has been made. From morphometric parameters and an approximation of the density differential between the mixolimnion and monimolimnion (Δρ = 0.6 × 10−3 g cm−3), a meromictic stability of 1,700 g‐cm cm−2 was estimated. From semimonthly measurements of temperature over a 2‐yr period, the work of the wind in distributing summer mixolimnetic heat income (16,800 g cal cm−2) was 760 g‐cm cm−2. Surface runoff from the 4.33 km2 drainage area of Green and Round Lakes supplies less than 50% of the observed outflow of Green Lake (3.3 × 106 m3/yr) in 1967. A theoretical replenishment time of the total Green Lake water mass was estimated as 2 to 3 years, or 1.0 to 1.7 years if the monimolimnion was considered static. Concentrations of major elements are given for the Green Lake water column and for groundwater of the area.