Liv Glacier is a steep

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

, long, emerging from the

Antarctic Plateau The Antarctic Plateau, Polar Plateau or King Haakon VII Plateau is a large area of East Antarctica which extends over a diameter of about , and includes the region of the geographic South Pole and the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station. This h ...

just southeast of

Barnum Peak Barnum Peak () is a peak, high, surmounting the east end of a prominent snow-covered rock divide near the head of Liv Glacier, just south of the mouth of LaVergne Glacier. It was discovered by Rear Admiral Byrd on the Byrd Antarctic Expedition f ...

and draining north through the

Queen Maud Mountains The Queen Maud Mountains are a major group of mountains, ranges and subordinate features of the Transantarctic Mountains, lying between the Beardmore and Reedy Glaciers and including the area from the head of the Ross Ice Shelf to the Antarctic P ...

to enter

Ross Ice Shelf The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf of Antarctica (, an area of roughly and about across: about the size of France). It is several hundred metres thick. The nearly vertical ice front to the open sea is more than long, and between hi ...

between

Mayer Crags The Mayer Crags () form a rugged V-shaped massif in Antarctica. The feature is long, surmounted by several sharp peaks, and located at the west side of the mouth of Liv Glacier, where the latter enters the Ross Ice Shelf. It was named by the Adviso ...

and

Duncan Mountains The Duncan Mountains () are a group of rugged coastal foothills, about long, extending from the mouth of Liv Glacier to the mouth of Strom Glacier at the head of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. They were discovered by the Byrd Antarctic Expedit ...

. It was discovered in 1911 by

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Amundsen bega ...

, who named it for the daughter of

Fridtjof Nansen Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (; 10 October 186113 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian. He led the team t ...

. The airway above the Liv Glacier was used by the monoplane ''Floyd Bennett'' in 1929 as the route for the first journey to the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

by air.

We have investigated the geochemistry of supraglacial streams on the Canada Glacier, Taylor Valley, Antarctica during the 2001–2002 austral summer. Canada Glacier supraglacial streams represent the link between primary precipitation (i.e. glacier snow) and proglacial Lake Hoare. Canada Glacier supraglacial stream geochemistry is intermediate between glacier snow and proglacial stream geochemistry with average concentrations of 49.1 μeq L−1 Ca2+, 19.9 μeq L−1 SO 2−4, and 34.3 μeq L−1 HCO −3. Predominant west to east winds lead to a redistribution of readily soluble salts onto the glacier surface, which is reflected in the geochemistry of the supraglacial streams. Western Canada Glacier supraglacial streams have average SO 2−4:HCO −3 equivalent ratios of 1.0, while eastern supraglacial streams average 0.5, suggesting more sulfate salts reach and dissolve in the western supraglacial streams. A graph of HCO −3 versus Ca2+ for western and eastern supraglacial streams had slopes of 0.87 and 0.72, respectively with R2 values of 0.84 and 0.83. Low concentrations of reactive silicate (> 10 μmol L−1) in the supraglacial streams suggested that little to no silicate weathering occurred on the glacier surface with the exception of cryoconite holes (1000 μmol L−1). Therefore, the major geochemical weathering process occurring in the supraglacial streams is believed to be calcite dissolution. Proglacial stream, Anderson Creek, contains higher concentrations of major ions than supraglacial streams containing 5 times the Ca2+ and 10 times the SO 2−4. Canada Glacier proglacial streams also contain higher concentrations (16.6–30.6 μeq L−1) of reactive silicate than supraglacial streams. This suggests that the controls on glacier meltwater geochemistry switch from calcite and gypsum dissolution to both salt dissolution and silicate mineral weathering as the glacier meltwater evolves. Our chemical mass balance calculations indicate that of the total discharge into Lake Hoare, the final recipient of Canada Glacier meltwater, 81.9% is from direct glacier runoff and 19.1% is from proglacial Andersen Creek. Although during a typical, low melt ablation season Andersen Creek contributes over 40% of the water added to Lake Hoare, its overall chemical importance is diluted by the direct inputs from Canada Glacier during high flow years. Decadal warming events, such as the 2001–2002 austral summer produce supraglacial streams that are a major source of water to Lake Hoare.

References

* Queen Maud Mountains Glaciers of Amundsen Coast Glaciers of Dufek Coast {{DufekCoast-glacier-stub