The Subglacial Antarctic Lakes Scientific Access (SALSA) Project accessed Mercer Subglacial Lake using environmentally clean hot-water drilling to examine interactions among ice, water, sediment, rock, microbes and carbon reservoirs within the lake water column and underlying sediments. A ~0.4 m diameter borehole was melted through 1087 m of ice and maintained over ~10 days, allowing observation of ice properties and collection of water and sediment with various tools. Over this period, SALSA collected: 60 L of lake water and 10 L of deep borehole water; microbes >0.2 μm in diameter from in situ filtration of ~100 L of lake water; 10 multicores 0.32–0.49 m long; 1.0 and 1.76 m long gravity cores; three conductivity–temperature–depth profiles of borehole and lake water; five discrete depth current meter measurements in the lake and images of ice, the lake water–ice interface and lake sediments. Temperature and conductivity data showed the hydrodynamic character of water mixing between the borehole and lake after entry. Models simulating melting of the ~6 m thick basal accreted ice layer imply that debris fall-out through the ~15 m water column to the lake sediments from borehole melting had little effect on the stratigraphy of surficial sediment cores.

冰下南极湖科学通道 (SALSA) 项目使用环境清洁的热水钻探进入默瑟冰下湖，以检查湖水柱和下伏沉积物中冰、水、沉积物、岩石、微生物和碳库之间的相互作用。一个直径约 0.4 米的钻孔通过 1087 米厚的冰融化并维持了约 10 天，从而可以使用各种工具观察冰的特性并收集水和沉积物。在此期间，SALSA 收集了： 60 L 湖水和 10 L 深井水；来自约 100 L 湖水的原位过滤直径 >0.2 μm 的微生物；10 个 0.32–0.49 m 长的多核；1.0 和 1.76 m 长的重力岩心；钻孔和湖水的三个电导率-温度-深度剖面；湖中五个离散的深度电流计测量值和冰的图像，湖水-冰界面和湖泊沉积物。温度和电导率数据显示了进入后钻孔和湖泊之间水混合的水动力特性。模拟约 6 m 厚基底增生冰层融化的模型表明，钻孔融化产生的碎片通过约 15 m 水柱落入湖泊沉积物对表层沉积物岩心的地层学影响不大。