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Engineering team heads to Antarctica to explore hidden lake

11 October 2011

Next week a British engineering team heads off to Antarctica for the first stage of an ambitious scientific mission to collect water and sediment samples from a lake buried beneath three kilometres of solid ice.

This extraordinary research project, at the frontier of exploration, will yield new knowledge about the evolution of life on Earth and other planets, and will provide vital clues about the Earth's past climate.

Transporting nearly 70 tonnes of equipment, the 'advance party' will make a journey almost 16,000km from the UK to subglacial Lake Ellsworth on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). It is one of the most remote and hostile environments on Earth with -25°C temperatures. Their task is to prepare the way for the 'deep-field' research mission that will take place one year later.

In October 2012 a team of ten scientists and engineers will use state of the art hot-water drilling technology to make a three kilometre borehole through the ice. They will then lower a titanium probe to measure and sample the water, followed by a corer to extract sediment from the lake.

Diagram of Lake Ellsworth beneath the ice (not to scale). Click the image to view full size (195KB).

Lake Ellsworth is likely to be the first of Antarctica's 387 known subglacial lakes to be measured and sampled directly through the design and manufacture of space-industry standard 'clean technology'.

For years, scientists have speculated that new and unique forms of microbial life could have evolved in this cold, pitch black and isolated environment. Sediments on the lake bed are likely to reveal vital clues about the history of life in the lake and the ancient history of the WAIS, including past collapse.

The Lake Ellsworth Programme Principal Investigator, Professor Martin Siegert from the University of Edinburgh, says, "For almost 15 years we've been planning to explore this hidden world. It's only now that we have the expertise and technology to drill through Antarctica's thickest ice and collect samples without contaminating this untouched and pristine environment.

"We are tremendously excited - this is a frontier science project with engineering and technology at the forefront. Scientists and engineers from two of the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) centres of excellence, working in partnership with scientists from eight UK universities, make up the consortium that will search for life in this extreme environment and discover the secrets locked in the sediments. Every piece of equipment is a bespoke design and they have been built in partnership with several UK businesses."

Dr David Pearce, Science Coordinator at the British Antarctic Survey, is part of the team leading the 'search for life' in the lake water. He says, "Finding life in a lake that could have been isolated from the rest of the biosphere for up to half a million years will tell us so much about the potential origin of and constraints for life on Earth, and may provide clues to the evolution of life on other extraterrestrial environments. If we find nothing, this will be even more significant because it will define limits at which life can no longer exist on the planet."

The unique five-metre-long water sampling probe was designed and built by engineers at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. Made of the highest grade of titanium to ensure maximum sterility and strength, it will collect 24 water samples at different lake depths. It will also capture the top layer of sediments at the lake-floor / water interface.

Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Durham, working in partnership with Austrian business UWITEC, have designed and built a sediment corer which can extract a core up to three metres long. The unique percussion-driven piston corer is strong enough to penetrate even the most compacted glacial sediments to extract a core sample.

Next year the team of scientists and engineers will live in tents, spending around three months working at one of the coldest and windiest places on Earth.

Dr Steven Wilson, interim Chief Executive for NERC, says, "The exploration of subglacial Lake Ellsworth is scientifically ambitious, technically challenging and hugely exciting. By funding this consortium, the Natural Environment Research Council is enabling scientists, engineers and support teams from two of its own research centres and from UK universities to make discoveries about this hidden world beneath the vast Antarctic ice sheet.

"The knowledge and new understanding of the evolution of life, the Earth's ancient climate history and the movement of ice sheets that we expect to achieve by this endeavour will make a major contribution to the international research efforts to understand our changing world. The innovative engineering technology that is being developed will lead the way for future explorations. This programme demonstrates very well the UK's continued leadership in investigating new scientific frontiers in the polar regions, and NERC's commitment to supporting world-leading research."

The Lake Ellsworth consortium programme is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Further information

Heather Martin
British Antarctic Survey Press Office
Tel: 01223 221226
Mob: 07740 822229

Linda Capper
British Antarctic Survey Press Office
Tel: 01223 221448
Mob: 07714 233744

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

University of Edinburgh (Principal Investigator):

Professor Martin Siegert
Tel: 0131 650 7542
Mob: 07780 703008

Press Office: Catriona Kelly
Tel: 0131 651 4401
Mob: 07791 355940

British Antarctic Survey (Search for Life):

Dr David Pearce
Tel: 01223 221561
Mob: 07931 531405

Press Office: Athena Dinar
Tel: 01223 221414
Mob: 07736 921693

University of Durham (Secrets in the Sediments):

Professor Mike Bentley
Tel: 0191 334 1859
Mob: 07825 823954

Press Office: Carl Stiansen
Tel: 0191 334 6077
Mob: 07508 003770

National Oceanography Centre (Water Sampling Probe):

Dr Matt Mowlem
Tel: 02380 596379
Mob: 07835 849992

Press Office: Mike Douglas
Tel: 02380 596001
Mob: 07881 514844

Advance Party, British Antarctic Survey:

Chris Hill, Lake Ellsworth Programme Manager
Andy Tait, Lead Engineer (hot-water drill)
Andy Webb, Drilling Engineer
Scott Iremonger, Plant Engineer
Press Office: Athena Dinar

Notes

1. Broadcast quality images of the Lake Ellsworth drilling site are available from the BAS FTP site.

2. 387 subglacial lakes have so far been discovered beneath Antarctica's vast ice sheet. The most well-known of these is Lake Vostok in East Antarctica. A Russian team hopes to penetrate and collect samples from this lake soon.

3. The space-industry standard 'clean technology' required to penetrate and sample subglacial Lake Ellsworth is the first of its kind to be developed.

4. The hot-water drill to create the borehole has been designed and built by engineers at the British Antarctic Survey. Only two companies in the world could deliver a 3·4km-long continuous hose to the required specification - both based in the UK.

5. Analysis of the sediments from the sediment corer will reveal clues to microbial life and help scientists assess the present-day stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and the likely consequences for future sea-level rise. Water and sediments samples will be analysed by consortium members in research institute and university laboratories throughout the UK.

6. The newly launched Subglacial Lake Ellsworth website is now available.

7. Follow the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth programme: @Lake_Ellsworth on Twitter or on Facebook.

Press release: 24/11

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