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Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers pp 683–686Cite as

Lake Ellsworth

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Part of the Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series book series (EESS)

Introduction

Subglacial Lake Ellsworth is located near the Ellsworth Mountains in West Antarctica at 78.9°S 90.6°W. The lake basin is in the center of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) in the Pine Island Glacier drainage basin, 20 km from the ice divide with the Institute Ice Stream. The lake is approximately 15 km long and over 3 km across at its widest point. Seismic surveys have revealed that the lake is over 100 m deep in places. The ice sheet above the lake is between 2.9 and 3.3 km thick, with the lake surface over 1 km beneath present sea level within a distinct topographic hollow, ∼1.5 km deeper than the surrounding subglacial bed. The basin is fjord-like in its topographic setting, and is one of a series of fjord-like over-deepenings on the western flank of the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands.

This summary of our current knowledge will document the series of radio-echo sounding (RES) transects and field campaigns from which the lake has been identified. Basal thermal regime...

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Lake Ellsworth, Figure 1

Bibliography

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Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by UK NERC grants NER/D008751/1, NE/D009200/1 and NER/D008638/1.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Geography, School of Applied Sciences, Northumbria University, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK

    John Woodward

  2. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JW, UK

    Martin J. Siegert

  3. British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OET, UK

    Andy M. Smith

  4. School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Geography Building, Drummond Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, UK

    Neil Ross

Authors
  1. John Woodward
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  2. Martin J. Siegert
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  3. Andy M. Smith
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  4. Neil Ross
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Woodward .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    Vijay P. Singh

  2. New Delhi, India

    Pratap Singh

  3. University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio, USA

    Umesh K. Haritashya

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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

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Woodward, J., Siegert, M.J., Smith, A.M., Ross, N. (2011). Lake Ellsworth. In: Singh, V.P., Singh, P., Haritashya, U.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2642-2_317

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