“Slippery when wet: Exploring the hydrosphere beneath the Antarctic ice sheet”

Dr. Matthew R. Siegfried, Department of Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines

Beneath the Antarctic ice sheet lies an almost entirely unexplored water system of interconnected streams, rivers, and lakes that transports freshwater and sediment from the interior of Antarctica to the Southern Ocean. This enigmatic hydrosphere, hidden beneath 10s to 1000s of meters of ice, also harbors diverse microbial ecosystems and can modify the flow of overlying ice, but remains poorly understood given our remote observations. In this seminar, I will trace the history of our investigations into the Antarctic subglacial hydrosphere and discuss two direct-access projects that resulted in in situ exploration and sampling of subglacial aquatic environments.

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Zoom links will be emailed to registered participants