Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)
Collated by Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (Italy)
in the framework of the SCAR Standing Committee on Antarctic Geographic Information (SCAGI)
Burke Basin (The name as it would appear in a gazetteer)
Burke Basin (The name as it would appear on a map)
If this information is incorrect, please e-mail mapping@aad.gov.au
Feature type: Basin
This name originates from Australia. It is part of the Australian Antarctic Gazetteer and the SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica.
The basin is an approximately triangular shaped basin of Taynaya Bay in the Vestfold Hills. It is 1 km long and 0.8km wide. The maximum known depth of the basin is 32 m although deeper spots may occur. The water of the basin is stratified, being near seawater salinity at the surface and increasing to circa 70 gL-1 at 30 m. Stratification begins at a depth of 10 m. The basin is one of the approximately 7 stratified marine basins that occur in the Vestfold Hills. Such basins are rare and these are probably the only known examples from Antarctica. The biology of Burke Basin is likely to be similar to the rest of Taynaya Bay and the ocean in the upper water, but like meromictic lakes in the lower water. The anoxic water probably supports dense populations of sulphate reducing bacteria beneath a layer of photosynthetic sulphur bacteria.
Burke Basin is named after Dr Chris Burke who wintered at Davis in 1983 studying the photosynthetic sulphur bacteria of the meromictic lakes and stratified fjords of the Vestfold Hills.
Biodiversity
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fauna,
flora or
both
within 1.0 degree of this location
Place names
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Australian or
international
place names within 1.0 degree of this location.