Collaborative Research: Antarctic Airborne ElectroMagnetics (ANTAEM) - Revealing Subsurface Water in Coastal Antarctica

在南极洲，数百万年的冰冻导致了数百米厚的永久冻土层的形成（即，冻结的土地）。最近的研究表明，这种缓慢的冻结已经将水捕获并浓缩到当地和区域的盐水含水层中，其盐度比海水高出许多倍。由于盐降低了水的冰点，这些盐水能够在远低于淡水正常冰点的温度下作为液态水存在。这种不寻常的地下水系统可能支持微生物的生命，为沿海海洋和冰雪覆盖的湖泊提供营养，并影响冰川的运动。这些咸水层也代表了其他行星（如火星）深层生命栖息地的潜在陆地类似物，并为寻找外星水提供了试验场。尽管人们在了解寒冷极地地区地表和近地表沃茨的物理、化学和生物学方面投入了大量努力，但在这种环境下调查深层地下含水层却非常困难。航空电磁（AEM）地下成像提供了一种有效的方法来测绘咸水。与丹麦奥胡斯大学的国际合作将实现AEM技术的知识和技能转移，这将提高美国极地研究能力，并为美国本科生和研究生提供独特的培训经验。该项目将调查南极洲麦默多站附近超过1000平方公里的海洋和陆地，并将揭示寒冷的极地沙漠是否隐藏着液态水的地下水池。这将对了解寒冷的极地冰川、冰封的湖泊、冻土和极地微生物学以及预测它们对未来变化的反应产生重大影响。永久冻土测绘技术的改进以及对永久冻土和地下水的了解将有利于人类利用南极和北极的高极地区，该项目将首次提供南极洲部分无冰沿海地区（麦克默多干谷）地下水分布和水文连通性的综合系统规模概览。在这种环境中，液态水相对稀缺，但通过影响和整合生物，地球化学，冰川学和地质过程发挥着巨大的作用。尽管地表水文学及其在生态系统过程中的作用在过去几十年中得到了深入的研究，但很难绘制地下水库的地图并确定其特征，也很难了解它们与区域湖泊、冰川和沿海沃茨的相互作用。拟议的项目建立在2011年使用AEM技术的“概念验证”的基础上。与2011年的概念验证调查相比，传感器和数据处理能力的改进将使新数据收集期间的地下穿透深度增加一倍，该调查达到300- 400米的深度。第一个勘探季节将侧重于在以下关键地点使用地基系统收集测深数据：（i）过去钻探项目对地下结构存在独立的限制，（ii）2011年电阻率数据集表明需要更深的穿透和只有地基系统才能实现的高信噪比。区域航空勘测将在第二个实地季节进行，并将从不同大小和不同冰盖分数的几个山谷中获得地下电阻率数据。

In Antarctica, millions of years of freezing have led to the development of hundreds of meters of thick permafrost (i.e., frozen ground). Recent research demonstrated that this slow freezing has trapped and concentrated water into local and regional briny aquifers, many times more salty than seawater. Because salt depresses the freezing point of water, these saline brines are able to persist as liquid water at temperatures well below the normal freezing point of freshwater. Such unusual groundwater systems may support microbial life, supply nutrients to coastal ocean and ice-covered lakes, and influence motion of glaciers. These briny aquifers also represent potential terrestrial analogs for deep life habitats on other planets, such as Mars, and provide a testing ground for the search for extraterrestrial water. Whereas much effort has been invested in understanding the physics, chemistry, and biology of surface and near-surface waters in cold polar regions, it has been comparably difficult to investigate deep subsurface aquifers in such settings. Airborne ElectroMagnetics (AEM) subsurface imaging provides an efficient way for mapping salty groundwater. An international collaboration with the University of Aarhus in Denmark will enable knowledge and skill transfer in AEM techniques that will enhance US polar research capabilities and provide US undergraduates and graduate students with unique training experiences. This project will survey over 1000 km2 of ocean and land near McMurdo Station in Antarctica, and will reveal if cold polar deserts hide a subsurface pool of liquid water. This will have significant implications for understanding cold polar glaciers, ice-covered lakes, frozen ground, and polar microbiology as well as for predictions of their response to future change. Improvements in permafrost mapping techniques and understanding of permafrost and of underlying groundwaters will benefit human use of high polar regions in the Antarctic and the Arctic.The project will provide the first integrative system-scale overview of subsurface water distribution and hydrological connectivity in a partly ice-free coastal region of Antarctica, the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Liquid water is relatively scarce in this environment but plays an outsized role by influencing, and integrating, biological, biogeochemical, glaciological, and geological processes. Whereas surface hydrology and its role in ecosystem processes has been thoroughly studied over the last several decades, it has been difficult to map out and characterize subsurface water reservoirs and to understand their interactions with regional lakes, glaciers, and coastal waters. The proposed project builds on the "proof-of-concept" use of AEM technology in 2011. Improvements in sensor and data processing capabilities will result in about double the depth of penetration of the subsurface during the new data collection when compared to the 2011 proof-of-concept survey, which reached depths of 300-400m. The first field season will focus on collecting deep soundings with a ground-based system in key locations where: (i) independent constraints on subsurface structure exist from past drilling projects, and (ii) the 2011 resistivity dataset indicates the need for deeper penetration and high signal-to-noise ratios achievable only with a ground-based system. The regional airborne survey will take place during the second field season and will yield subsurface electrical resistivity data from across several valleys of different sizes and different ice cover fractions.