Dale Andersen’s Astrobiology Antarctic Status Report: 11 November 2022: Lake Sampling And GNSS Measurements At Lake Untersee
Yesterday was quite productive at Lake Untersee. We were able to recover a 50 cm sediment core from the deepest region of the south basin (102 m) which is also an area that goes anoxic and has high levels of dissolved methane. We will obtain several more cores from this area as well as other regions of the north basin which remains oxic to the bottom (170 m).
Denis Lacelle and Andre Pellerin will be conducting geochemical analyses of the core material and pore water that was obtained once they return home and the samples catch up with them a few weeks later.
We also began obtaining highly accurate, precise GNSS (GPS) measurements of features here at Untersee using a Trimble GNSS System
- R9s Base Receiver (image above)
- Zephyr 3 GNSS antenna (Image below)
- R12i Receiver). (Image below)
These measurements will help nail down with great accuracy the elevation of the lake ice-cover, location of boulders floating on the lake (that move with the ice-cover a little each year), paleo-shorelines, sample locations etc.
Last night was pretty windy with 40 knot winds and occasional higher gusts and this morning those winds while calming some, are still prevalent so we will start work outside a bit later once the winds drop down to a reasonble level.
10 November update:
Snowy here the last two days, but no wind so not too bad. We spent several hours making a detailed water quality profile of the south basin that goes anoxic at 80 m. That basin is 102 m deep where we made the profiles. We will do it again in the north basin (170 m deep) today if the winds remain calm.
Evening Update: Quiet evening here. Winds are calm and our light snow stopped earlier in the day. Hopefully the weather remains calm for awhile.
Zephyr 3 GNSS antenna
R12i Receiver
Astrobiology
