Lake Bonney () is a

saline Saline may refer to: Salt-related * Saline (medicine), a liquid with salt content to match the human body * Saline water, non-medicinal salt water * Saline, a historical term (especially American) for a salt works or saltern Places United States ...

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

with permanent ice cover at the western end of

Taylor Valley Taylor Valley is an ice-free valley about long, once occupied by the receding Taylor Glacier. It lies north of the Kukri Hills between the Taylor Glacier and New Harbour in Victoria Land, Antarctica. Taylor Valley is the southernmost of the ...

in the

McMurdo Dry Valleys The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of largely Antarctic oasis, snow-free valleys in Antarctica, located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound. The Dry Valleys experience extremely low humidity and surrounding mountains prevent the flow of ...

Victoria Land Victoria Land is a region in eastern Antarctica which fronts the western side of the Ross Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf, extending southward from about 70°30'S to 78th parallel south, 78°00'S, and westward from the Ross Sea to the edge of the Ant ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. It is long and up to wide. A narrow channel only wide (''Lake Bonney at Narrows'') separates the lake into ''East Lake Bonney'' () and ''West Lake Bonney'' (). To the north and south of the lake lie peaks that are over above sea level, and the

Taylor Glacier The Taylor Glacier () is a glacier in Antarctica about long, flowing from the plateau of Victoria Land into the western end of Taylor Valley, north of the Kukri Hills. It flows to the south of the Asgard Range. The middle part of the glacier is ...

is positioned to the west of the lake. It is deep and is perpetually trapped under of ice. It was first visited by the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901–1904. It was named by the

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott (6 June 1868 – ) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–04 and the Terra Nova Expedition ...

expedition of 1910–1913, for

Thomas George Bonney Thomas George Bonney (27 July 1833 – 10 December 1923) was an English geologist, president of the Geological Society of London. Career Bonney was born in Rugeley, Staffordshire, England, the eldest son of the Reverend Thomas Bonney, headm ...

, professor of geology at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, England from 1877 to 1901. Lake Bonney is one of the main lakes studied by the National Science Foundations, McMurdo

Long Term Ecological Research The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network operated by the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) consists of a group of over 1800 scientists and students studying ecological processes over extended temporal and spatial scales. The ...

site. Starting in 2007

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

is funding an autonomous submersible robot called

ENDURANCE Endurance (also related to sufferance, forbearance, resilience, constitution, fortitude, persistence, tenacity, steadfastness, perseverance, stamina, and hardiness) is the ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a ...

to explore the water volume of the lake to study its shape and ecology. The robot is built by

Stone Aerospace Stone Aerospace is an aerospace engineering firm founded by engineer and explorer Bill Stone, located in Del Valle, a suburb of Austin, Texas.DEPTHX The Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX) is an autonomous underwater vehicle designed and built by Stone Aerospace, an aerospace engineering firm based in Austin, Texas. It was designed to autonomously explore and map underwater sinkholes in ...

submersible. The Endurance Project is led by

Peter Doran Peter T. Doran is an American Earth scientist who is Professor of Geology and Geophysics and John Franks Endowed Chair at Louisiana State University. Prior to 2015, he was faculty in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois ...

with Bill Stone and John Priscu among the co-investigators. Scientists have discovered an ancient

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

beneath the Taylor Glacier, next to Lake Bonney. This ecosystem survives by transforming sulfur and iron compounds for growth. The work is seen as a stage in developing an autonomous submersible robot that could explore the ocean on

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

's moon

Europa Europa may refer to: Places * Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace * Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro * Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development * Europa Cliffs, Alexan ...

. The green algae ''

Chlamydomonas priscuii ''Chlamydomonas'' ( ) is a genus of green algae consisting of about 150 species of unicellular flagellates, found in stagnant water and on damp soil, in freshwater, seawater, and even in snow as " snow algae". ''Chlamydomonas'' is used as a m ...

'' is endemic to this lake.

Tributaries

Lake Bonney is fed by a number of

meltwater Meltwater (or melt water) is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glaciers, glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelf, ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found during early spring (season), spring when snow packs a ...

streams: * Bartlette Creek *

Bohner Stream Bohner Stream () is a meltwater stream, long, flowing north from the south end of Sollas Glacier to Priscu Stream in Taylor Valley, Victoria Land. It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1996 after Lieutenant Commander Robe ...

Doran Stream Doran Stream () is a meltwater stream, long, flowing north from Doran Glacier east of Sollas Glacier to Priscu Stream in Taylor Valley, Victoria Land. It was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names in 1996 after Peter Doran, a paleolim ...

(feeding Priscu Stream) * Lawson Creek * Lizotte Creek * Lyons Creek * Mason Creek * Priscu Stream (the longest, ) * Red River * Santa Fe Stream * Sharp Creek *

Vincent Creek Vincent Creek () is a meltwater stream, long, flowing north from the north end of Hughes Glacier to the south edge of Lake Bonney in Taylor Valley, Victoria Land. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) in 1996 after Warwick F. ...

References

* U.S. Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System. Accessed January 2008 *

April 22, 2007. Accessed January 2008

External links

Lake dataSatellite mapLake Bonney panoramic picture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonney Lakes of Victoria Land McMurdo Dry Valleys Saline lakes of Antarctica Endorheic lakes of Antarctica

Tributaries

See also

Further reading

References

External links