There will be several sessions on Subglacial Antarctic Environments at the EGU. These environments are among the last great unexplored areas of our planet. There has been intense public interest in this research and equally great controversy over Russian plans to enter Lake Vostok under less than ideal environmental conditions (See Science news article in October, 2005). This topic has great ramifications for the search for life on icy worlds beyond earth.

Subglacial Environment exploration and reserarch will be a major International Polar Year 2007-2008 Program under the umbrella of SALE-UNITED. Following the EGU, there will be a major international workshop in Grenoble, France April 24-26, 2006 that wil be the "kick-off" meeting for SALE in the IPY and advanced science and technology planning.

Sessions:
BG7.02 Exploration of Sub-Glacial Lake Environments and Ecosystems | >>programme
SSP14/CL042 Lake systems: sedimentary archives of climate change and tectonics | >>programme
CR20 Subglacial environments – properties and processes influencing ice dynamics | >>programme
US3 The International Polar Year 2007-2008: The Emerging Framework | >>programme

More details can be found at the web sites:
SALE Program Office http://salepo.tamu.edu/
SALE -UNITED http://salepo.tamu.edu/sale_united