Byrd Bites Brown Bag - The Biogeochemistry of Polar Subglacial Environments with a Special Focus on Blood Falls, Taylor Valley, Antarctica

Berry Lyons, Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, School of Earth Sciences, OSU

In the past 20 years it has been recognized that subglacial aquatic environments exist under polar glaciers, and these systems may be important to glacial dynamics, be quantitatively significant sources of nutrients and other solutes into the ocean, and also harbor life. In the this presentation I will review important biogeochemical findings of the past decade of research from both Antarctica and Greenland. Finally I will discuss recent data on the geochemistry of brine underneath the Taylor Glacier in the McMurdro Dry Valleys region, Antarctica, and speculate on the ultimate source of these unusual waters.