Geochemistry and Microbiology of the Extreme Aquatic Environment in Lake Vida, East Antarctica

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bernd Wagner
• Subject Area: Oceanography
• Term: from 2010 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 171764345

• Final Report Year: 2012

Final Report Abstract

The field work at Lake Vida and the studies of sediment horizons interspersed in the ice of Lake Vida has provided new and unexpected results. First of all, there is apparently no body of liquid water in the basin as presumed based on earlier studies. The results from radiocarbon dating imply that Lake Vida as existing today is probably ony a couple of hundred years old. The sedimentary characteristics of the sediment horizons interspersed in the lake ice indicate only minor variations and a complex interplay of glacial, fluvial and eolian transport processes, which contribute to the sediment deposition in the lake ice.