Obersee (Antarctica)
| Obersee | ||
|---|---|---|
| Geographical location | Otto von Gruber Mountains in Queen Maud Land | |
| Tributaries | from the Anuchin Glacier | |
| Drain | temporarily to the Untersee | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 71 ° 17 ′ 0 ″ S , 13 ° 39 ′ 0 ″ E | |
|
||
| Altitude above sea level | 795 m | |
| surface | 3.43 km² | |
| length | 2.7 km | |
| width | 2.6 km | |
| Maximum depth | 55.3 m | |
| Catchment area | 48 km² | |
The Obersee (in the English-speaking area Lake Ober-See ) is a year-round frozen lake in East Antarctica .
location
The lake is located on the northern edge of the Otto von Gruber Mountains in the central Queen Maud Land . The southern shore of the lake is occupied by a glaciated slope that gradually rises to 1,100 meters and merges further to the southeast with the Mushketov glacier . In the west, the lake is bordered by the ice-free northern foothills of the Otto von Gruber Mountains; in the east it is dominated by the 1,300 meter high Seekopf . In the north the Anutschin glacier borders the valley of the Obersee, its meltwater feeds the lake.
description
The lake extends about 2.7 km in a north-south direction and is up to 2.6 km wide. The greatest measured depth is 55.3 meters. It is permanently covered with ice, which in summer has an average thickness of 3 meters. In the Antarctic summer, the lake has an outflow to the Untersee through the lateral moraine of the Anutschin Glacier . The salt content is 55 milligrams per liter. Despite the isolation from the outside world, there are mats made of cyanobacteria and green algae on the lake bed .
history
The lake was discovered during survey flights of the German Antarctic Expedition in 1938/39 under the direction of Alfred Ritscher and documented with the help of aerial photographs . On the basis of the color differences in the ice and the unusually smooth surface of the ice, Otto von Gruber concluded that it was a body of water that was only frozen on the surface, but underneath it was liquid. The first sledge expedition that reached the Obersee and the nearby Untersee in January / February 1969 was part of the 14th Soviet Antarctic Expedition.
literature
- Peter Bormann & Diedrich Fritzsche: The Schirmacher Oasis, Queen Maud Land, East Antarctica, and its surroundings . In: Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen supplementary booklet . tape 289 . Perthes, Gotha 1995, ISBN 3-623-00760-9 .
- Alfred Ritscher: Scientific and aeronautical results of the German Antarctic Expedition 1938/39 . Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1942, p. 1-304 .
- Markus Julius Schwab: Reconstruction of the late Quaternary climate and environmental history of the Schirmacher Oasis and the Wohlthat Massif . In: Reports on polar research . tape 293 . Bremerhaven 1998, p. 1–128 ( awi.de [PDF; 3.7 MB ]).
Web links
- Map of the Otto von Gruber Mountains with the location of the Upper and Lower Lakes (PDF file; 269 kB)
- Oblique aerial view of the Obersee, taken by the German Antarctic Expedition 1938/39 (PDF; 1.1 MB), accessed on September 20, 2012
Individual proof
- ↑ Lake Ober-See in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey (English)