Lake Untersee

The submarine (also Lake submarine ) is a year-round frozen lake in East Antarctica.

Location

The lake is located in the undersea oasis on the northern edge of the Otto -von- Gruber Mountains in central Queen Maud Land. The undersea oasis is 25 km long and up to 15 km wide. In addition to the submarine is located on the northeastern edge of the undersea oasis of smaller and higher-lying upper lake.

Description

The lake is 6.5 km long, 2.5 km wide and is permanently covered with ice, which has an average thickness of 3.0 m in summer. With a depth of 169 m and a surface area of 11.4 sq km of submarine is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the Antarctic.

The submarine is of mountains of the Otto -von- Gruber Mountains, the Ritschergipfel ( 2810 m), the Mentzelberg and the carpenter Mountain in the east, south and west enclosed semi-circular. The open valley to the north is bordered by Anuchin glacier whose melting water feeds the submarine. The barrier, which forms the Anuchin Glacier, jams on the endorheic submarine. Water is lost only by evaporation and ablation of the ice sheet.

The upper 70 m of the sea water have a high pH from 9.8 to 12.1. There exists a supersaturation with dissolved oxygen (150 %) and a very low primary production. The water temperature is consistently below 1 ° C. The sediments of the lake produce more methane than any other natural aquatic system on the planet.

History

The lake was 1938/39, discovered by the German Antarctic expedition led by Alfred Ritscher, documented with the help of aerial photographs and named sub ​​- sea. Was first reached the lake from the 14th Soviet Antarctic Expedition in January / February 1969, whereby the first studies of the water body were performed.

International Expedition 2008/2009

2008/2009 took advantage of an international expedition led by the exobiologist Richard Hoover of the Marshall Space Flight Center of NASA the lake as a testing ground for finding models for primitive extraterrestrial life. The conditions on and in the lake mimic the conditions that are suspected on Mars, comets and the icy, methane-rich Jupiter or Saturn 's moons. " The lake is so alkaline as a powerful bleaching agent and disinfectant. If we find extremophile organisms in submarine, has far- reaching effects. This will help us to decide where to look for life on other planets and how we detect extraterrestrial life when we actually see it, "said Hoover in February 2008.