The role of polar lake ice as a filter for glacial lacustrine sediments

Energy balance calculations show that clasts of less than critical thickness will melt their way through the permanent floating ice cover of lakes in arid regions where the mean annual temperature rarely exceeds the freezing point. Clasts of greater thickness will remain supported by the ice. In the Dry Valleys region of the Transantarctic Mountains clasts with thickness of up to about 1 cm pass through the floating ice cover of modern lakes leaving larger clasts supported.