An atlas of the lakes of the Larsemann Hills, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica - ANARE Research Notes 74

The lakes are young, with the oldest basins being about 9000 years old. Variations in the characteristics of the lakes reflect deglaciation history, proximity to the continental ice margin and exposure to the ocean. The main source of the water is snow melt, augmented by sea spray into the more exposed lakes.

The waters are well mixed by katabatic winds. Most lakes thaw for up to 2 months in summer, but some are permanently frozen. The waters have mainly low conductivity and exceptionally low turbidity, and have near-neutral pH values.

The ionic order is Na+ greater than Mg2+ greater than Ca2+ greater than K+. This reflects a strong marine influence, with calcium dominating in a very few catchments. The Larsemann Hills were discovered in 1935 by Captain Klarius Mikkelsen in the Thorshavn.

Australian, Chinese and Russian stations were established in the area in the mid-late 1980's. Law (Australia) was commenced in 1986 when an Apple Hut was unloaded from MV Nella Dan. A subsequent visit was made during the 1986 winter.

The first Australian scientific expedition visited the area during the 1986-87 austral summer. Progress Station (Russia) was occupied at the time. Building of Zhong Shan commenced in January 1989. ******************* Several files are associated with this metadata record: 1) A PDF copy of the original ANARE Research Note 2) A CSV file containing the data presented in the ANARE Research Note 3) A shapefile of the lakes presented in the ANARE Research

Note

The fields in this dataset are: lake_id lake_name (text) location (text description) longitude (decimal degrees) latitude (decimal degrees) altitude (m) lake_area (ha) catchment_area (ha) maximum_depth (m) dimensions (m) distance_from_polar_plateau (m) description (text) geology (text) water_temperature (C) pH water_conductivity (micro mho/cm) Eh (reduction potential, mV) ca_concentration (Ca++, ppm) mg_concentration (Mg++, ppm) na_concentration (NA+, ppm) k_concentration (K+, ppm) ionic_ratios_na_ca_mg_k (ionic ratio of na:(ca+mg+mk)) ionic_ratios_ca_na_k_mg (ionic ratio of ca:(na+k+mg)) bottom_sediment_grab_sample (text description of results)