Possible evidence of climate warming may also be found at
several Antarctic lakes, thought to represent a sensitive
indicator of short-term climate change. New Zealand scientists
report that Lake Vanda, a 75 metre deep lake in the Wright
Valley, near their Vanda research station, is rising at a rate
of nearly one metre each year. The rise is related to an
increase in glacier meltwater flowing in via the lake's
contributory river, the Onyx; volumes of water flowing into the
river have more than doubled in the last decade. While scientists
caution there is no clear evidence of a link between the high
water level, increased lake or water volumes and global warming
trends, other lakes in the Dry Valleys have also been rising in
recent years [11]. Another study of six Antarctic lakes has
shown that the surface ice has thinned by up to 40 percent over
the last decade [12].
Footnotes: 11. "Rising lake threatens a NZ Base in Antarctica", {The Press
[Christchurch]}, 10 April 1994. [Return]
12. Linder, B.L., McKay, C.P., Clow, G.D. & Wharton, R.A.,
"Computational modelling on Antarctic lake ice; advances in ice
technology", in Sackinger, W.M. & Wadhams, P. (eds), {Proceedings of
the Third Conference of Ice Technology}, 1992. [Return]
