Lake Hoare Tracer Test Stream Chemistry

As part of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Long Term Ecological Research (MCM-LTER) project in Antarctica, a LiCl tracer was injected into Andersen Creek in the Lake Hoare basin on 17 December 2012. The purpose of this study was to determine the fate of stream water below lake ice. Injection began at 20:30 hours and continued for two hours. Water samples were collected at half-hour intervals from 5 stream sites and 15 ice boreholes over a 4 hour period beginning at the start of injection. Samples were analyzed for major cations and major anions using an ion chromotograph at McMurdo Station. Results show that stream water moved West along the lake shoreline below the moat ice, and did not generate interflow below the perennial lake ice.