16-31 Décembre 2023
Sampling of glacial flour
The main objective of the MARGOLAND expedition is to collect glacial flour. This extremely fine material gives glacial lakes their brown color. It results from the erosion caused by the glacier on the basaltic rock. By comparison, non-glacial lakes look very different. The MARGOLAND team therefore spent 2 weeks at the isolated Mortadelle site, sampling these 2 types of lake. They also set up a makeshift laboratory to process the samples. These will be used for chemical and biological analyses in the laboratory, or for experiments during the MARGOCEAN oceanographic campaign.
Right: glacial Lake Ampère. Its brown waters carry icebergs from the front of the glacier. They accumulate near the outlet where they slowly melt. On the left is the non-glacial lake Alessandra David Néel. This small lake was created by the melting of the glacier. However, it is no longer fed by glacial erosion. Its waters are therefore much clearer than those of Lake Ampère.
The two Mortadelle huts overlook Lake Ampère, in the distance the Ampère plain and Table Bay, which will be sampled by the Marion Dufresne during the MARGOCEAN campaign.
The laboratory in one of the two "arbec", metal huts installed in the 60s. On the right, the geochemistry laboratory; on the left, the microbiology laboratory.