More than 145 Sub Glacial Lakes beneath Antarctic ice sheet

New Delhi, Mar 16 (UNI) More than 145 Sub Glacial Lakes have been identified beneath the Antarctic ice sheet by scientists, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Minister of Science, Technology and Earth Science Kapil Sibal said in a written reply that most of these lakes lie below 3000 to 4000 meter (M) thick ice sheet. The largest sub glacial Lake Vostok occupies an area of about 14,000 km lying below about 4000 m thick ice sheet.

He said global warming and climate change forms an important component of the scientific studies being carried out by Indian scientists in Antarctica under the broad category of Atmosphere sciences. Considering the importance of green house gases in global warming, scientists from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Delhi have ben monitoring levels of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Carbon Monoxide and water vapour in Antarctica at the Indian research base Maitri,since 2001.

He said studies on Ozone layer have also been carried out since mid 1990. Scientists of Geological Survey of India (GSI) have been monitoring continental ice margin in Western Schirmacher range near Maitri since 1983. Studies indicate that in last two decades ice has receded at a rate of about 7 M per decade. Recently National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa has established an ice core research laboratory to carry out research on past climate change using shallow ice cores obtained from Antarctica. These studies along with other deep ice core studies on earth and data obtained are being used for future climatic projections.

Mr Sibal said the long term research on atmospheric sciences including those related to climate change in Antarctica will be continued by the Indian scientists. '' We are also planning to initiate research in Arctic region along with other counries to complement research being carried out in Antarctica. India is also participating in International Polar Year (2007-08), which is a large scale global scientific collaborative effort, addressing varius critical issues, including climate change,'' the Minister added.

He said during IPY mass awareness programmes are also planned to highlight relevance of Polar science and issues related to global climate change, he added.

In response to another question, Mr Sibal admitted that the Government has decided to send a research team to North Pole during the eleventh plan period starting 2007 in association with National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa.

He said this is coinciding with Internatonal Polar year (IPY).

Scientific research is proposed in the fields of Atmospheric Sciences, Space,Weather, Glaciology including Sea ice and Marine Sciences. There will be a focus on study of global climatic change process and related fields.

He said the Ministry has proposed a new research scheme " 'Expedition to Arctic' during the eleventh five year plan, for which a token amount of Rs 1 crore has been provided for the next financial year.

Modalities are being worked out with the Norwegian polar Research Institute for Indian Scientists to carry out research in Syalbard region, where an international research facility exists in Ny-Alesund.

UNI