Call for Papers
Deep Sub-ice Water, Hydrological Systems and Ice Sheet Interactions
SCAR/IASC IPY Open Science Conference
8-11 July 2008
St. Petersburg, Russia
Abstract Deadline: Tuesday, 15 January 2008
For further information, please go to:
http://www.scar-iasc-ipy2008.org/
Papers are invited for "Deep Sub-ice Water, Hydrological Systems and Ice
Sheet Interactions" (session 3.1) being held at the Scientific Committee
on Antarctic Research (SCAR) / International Arctic Science Committee
(IASC) IPY Open Science Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 8-11
July 2008.
Session description:
The importance and role of deep sub-ice water, hydrological systems, and
ice sheet interactions are now recognized as central to many processes
that have shaped the Antarctic continent and its ice sheets today and in
the past. Subglacial environments include a range of features that
differ in geologic setting, age, evolutionary history, limnological
conditions, and size. These environments are "natural" earth-bound
macrocosms that in some instances trace their origins to a time before
the continent became encased in ice. Subglacial environments are
isolated from the weather, seasons, and celestially controlled climatic
changes that establish fundamental constraints on the structure and
functioning of most other earth-bound environments. In contrast to other
habitats, processes in subglacial environments are mediated by the flow
of the overlying ice, glaciological boundary condition, and flux of heat
and possibly fluids from the underlying basin, a tectonic control.
Recent findings suggest that a third control is subglacial hydrology,
which establishes water residence time and enables the delivery of
water, materials, and heat to and through subglacial systems. Water
ponded in lakes or spread-out beneath the ice efficiently lubricates
motion of the ice but moves little sediment; water in concentrated
streams moves more sediment but localizes lubrication. The spectrum of
sub-ice environments provides an unparalleled opportunity to explore one
of Earth's last frontiers and decipher fundamental Earth and life
processes. The exploration and study of deep sub-ice water, hydrological
systems, and ice sheet interactions will advance our understanding of
how life, climate, and planetary history have combined to produce the
subglacial environments as we know them today.
For more information, please contact:
Irina Alekhina
E-mail: alekhina [at] omrb.pnpi.spb.ru
Chuck Kennicutt
E-mail: m-kennicutt [at] tamu.edu
To submit an abstract for this and other sessions, please go to:
http://www.scar-iasc-ipy2008.org/