During the summer field season of the 65 th Russian Antarctic Expedition a research aimed at studying the structure of the snowice dams of the Lakes Progress and Discussion (Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica), which are characterized with annual outburst floods, was carried out. Survey was performed using groundpenetrating radar sounding complemented with noncore drilling and analysis of the aerial photo data acquired with unmanned aerial vehicle during the last field seasons. The results show that location of the waterways, which occur during the outbursts of the both lakes, does not change significantly year in year out and fits a linear depression in basement topography under the dam and a following flexure of the ice layer. During the winter period, the opened channels are being filled with snow, and thereby a natural softened zone is being formed. Further outburst flood propagates mainly within this zone. Monitoring survey of the snowice dam of the Progress Lake during the summer period showed that destruction of the dam does not happen rapidly when the outburst takes place, but begins a few weeks before it with gradual filtration within the snow layer.

Translated title of the contributionStructure of snow-ice dams of the outburst lakes in the Broknes Peninsula (Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica) based on ground-penetrating radar data
Original languageRussian
Pages (from-to)291-300
Number of pages10
JournalЛед и Снег
Volume61
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

    Scopus subject areas

  • Water Science and Technology
  • Earth-Surface Processes
  • Geochemistry and Petrology
  • Global and Planetary Change

    Research areas

  • Broknes Peninsula, East Antarctica, Larsemann Hills, ground-penetrating radar, outburst floods, Ground-penetrating radar, Outburst floods

ID: 77090973