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Stirring the icy waters

Article Abstract:

There is evidence that ice has gradually frozen onto the base of the ice sheet from the surface of Lake Vostok in a manner that encourages circulation of the lake water. Tracing radar reflections within the ice sheet shows that melting of basal ice arises where the ice sheet first flows out onto the lake. Water then refreezes onto the ice sheet before it slides back onto land. The water in the lake may not be much older than the basal ice that is now melting. Microbial life in the lake could be based on either organic carbon or carbon dioxide, which could have come from the overlying ice or formed in the lake itself, or both.

Evolution (Biology), Microorganisms, Lake Vostok

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A case of missing water

Article Abstract:

E.A. Colhoun and colleagues have presented a theory of Antarctic glaciation that contradicts currently accepted marine seismic and core data but the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Project may verify their findings over the next three years. Colhoun contends that the Antarctic ice sheets only accounted for 0.5-2.5 meters of the post-glacial sea-level rise rather than the 25 meters postulated. However, their data is based on beaches in the Ross Embayment and on Eastern Antarctica when other postulations are from remote Pacific sites such as New Zealand.

Antarctic regions, Sea level

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Universal behavior in compressive failure of brittle materials

Article Abstract:

Research is presented concerning the investigation of the mechanism which causes compressive failure in rock and ice during rapid loading under moderate to low confinement. The quantitative model developed is discussed.

Fatigue (Materials), Letter to the Editor, Brittleness, Rocks

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