General concept of a deep hot water drilling system and drilling strategy to access Subglacial Lake Qilin, East Antarctica
Deep Antarctic subglacial lakes represent physically unexplored aquatic environments, the investigation of which may provide unique information about microbial evolution, past climate of the Earth, and formation of the Antarctic ice sheet. Subglacial Lake Qilin identified in the middle part of the Princess Elizabeth Land is recognized as one of the ideal lakes for upcoming exploration. Currently, R&D work to develop a deep hot water drilling system to access this lake has been started in China, and the paper presents a general concept of the system and the brief description of the drilling strategy. Access drilling to the lake is planned for the season 2026/27.
Authors
- L. Li
- Pavel G. Тalalay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8230-4600)
- Jialin Hong
- Da Gong
- Mingquan Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6627-5627)
- B. Li
- Hui Zuo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3918-5754)
- Hao Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2945-0676)
- Guitao Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1702-6322)
- Weiping Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9773-9255)
- LI Ya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6119-6041)
- Nan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5502-7663)
- Xiangqian Fan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5688-5475)
- Yu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8423-619X)
- Tingting Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5288-2314)
Institutions
- Polar Research Institute of China (CN)
- Jilin University (CN)
- China University of Geosciences (CN)
- China University of Geosciences (Beijing) (CN)
- Polar (Finland) (FI)
- Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics & Technology (CN)
- National Astronomical Observatories (CN)
- Hangzhou Dianzi University (CN)
- East China Normal University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Arctic and Antarctic Research
- Published
- 2024-12-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.30758/0555-2648-2024-70-4-514-524
- Primary Topic
- Cryospheric studies and observations
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Polar Research Institute of China