Is it under ice year round? Where is it located (is it surrounded by ice of soil)? You could say a year round ice covered lake/pond. But if it thaws in the summer time it could be a thermokarst lake. Here is a website for some ice terminologies http://nsidc.org/cgi-bin/words/topic.pl?frozen%20ground%20or%20permafrost

Hi Randolph. In Antarctica lakes that are permanently under a thick ice crust or a glacier are called "subglacial lakes".. The most known example is Lake Vostok, which is located below an ice crust thicker than 3 Km.

Thank you - no, I'm working in temperate regions (Nova Scotia) where we have no permafrost. So, the ponds I'm working with are seasonally (Dec - Feb) covered with ice.

For our limnological work we distinguish a pond as a water body freezing solid in winter whilst a lake does not freeze solid. I do not recall encountering a name for lake water under ice cover except the subglacial water body referred to by Antonio. However subglacial water bodies are as the term indicates located beneath glacial ice not lake ice.

I've worked on lakes in the Adirondacks and in West Virginia that ice over during winter. I've never used any special terms. I just call the time periods the 'ice-free' period and the period of 'ice and snow cover.'

I agree with Karl. I would term the time periods as that of "ice cover" and "open water" or "open water season" and the transition date as "ice off". Freezing of a lake surface during winter is a pretty normal thing for temperate lakes (which is probably the majority) after all.

I would also disagree with John's use of the term pond/lake as one that distinguishes between water bodies that freeze to the bottom or not. It is far too dependent upon climate and/or local groundwater conditions than other water body aspects.

That and it follows from such a definition that any water body no-matter how miniscule that happens to be in a warm climate is automatically a “lake". Sorry I 'm just not buying there being no "ponds" in Africa or Australia and only "lakes".

I've heard John's definition from others before so he is far from alone in his usage but I've always considered it a flawed definition.

Johan -- I actually like it, because now I can call the small pond outside of my office here at Florida Sea Grant 'Green Lake' instead of 'Green Pond.'

It is always nicer to call ones sites "lakes" instead of "ponds" as is certainly sounds more significant, more noteworthy. By default I do tend to call them all "lakes" as the distinction between ponds-lakes has generally lacked a clear rule that makes sense across eco-regions.

Some other demarcations I've heard used or proposed as possible distinguishing pond features would be whether submergent vegetation grows clear across/or the photic depth exceeds mean or max water depth, or the combination of depth and fetch prevent summer stratification. These also have flaws with them too of course.

I admit I've never settled on a rule that I'm really comfortable with for lake vs pond.

Dear R Lauff.............The water body situated under the ice sheet or ice cover is always called as ""Subglacial Water body"".

I was assuming when answering the original question that it was referring to polar lakes, but I see that in fact they are more temperate systems. I entirely agree that the lake/pond differentiation based on freezing solid or not only applies to Antarctic/High Arctic environments I've studied where it does have its uses. If one is considering water beneath ice-covered lower latitude systems then the terms quoted by others in this thread would seem as good as any.

In Scandinavian countries (I worked in Sweden) also they don't use any specific terminology except referring them as ice-covered, ice-free, partially ice-covered, etc. We had lakes where we could skate on the ice during winter...:-). I agree with John Ellis-Evans' comments on the "sub-glacial" water bodies.

Thanks everyone!

Ice covered lakes/ponds, ice-sealed lakes, lake's liquid layer, or a fossil water reserves are interchangeable terms depending on location and season.

Subglacial lake

You can use the word subglacial lakes or subglacial ponds to represent an aquatic environment of a pond or lake which is under the ice. In general, "subglacial water bodies" is more suitable. Please see the paper "Martin J. Siegert, Antarctic subglacial lakes, Earth-Science Reviews 50, 2000, 29–50."

http://www.eeo.ed.ac.uk/homes/msiegert/pdf1.pdf

Re ponds vs lakes: I recall from graduate school that the ecological distinction, at least in temperate areas, is that a lake generally is large and/or deep enough to develop temperature stratification, with spring and fall turnovers, whereas a pond does not usually develop a stable thermocline.

I've heard the term sub-glacial used before but I have also saw ice covered lake so I think there is no hard and fast rule just call it what you think is best

Re ponds vs lakes: I have been taught (but quite many years ago) that lakes are water bodies of natural origin while ponds are artificial - made by humans. I do my research in a fish-pond area: many ponds are big (200-300 ha) but all shallow (0.5- 1 m on average) so they don't develop a stable thermocline. Because they are old, they look natural, like lakes

You could specifiy it using "ice-covered water body"

Vous pouvez utiliser, en français, le qualificatif "lac gelé" ; ou en anglais "frowzen lake"

in English "frowzen lake"

Subglacial aquifer. I've published many articles on those. Please see one of them:

N. S. Duxbury, I. A. Zotikov, K. H. Nealson, V. E. Romanovsky, F. D. Carsey , Journal of Geophysical Research, 2001. 106:1453-1462.

Article: A numerical model for an alternative origin of Lake Vostok, Antarctica and its exobiological implications for Mars.

Selon la permanence plus ou moins longue de la couverture de glace on distingue respectivement les lacs sous-glaciaires et les lacs sous-glaciels. Les premiers lacs sont de plus grandes dimensions et relativement très profonds, tandisque les lacs sous-glaciels sont peu profonds et ont aussi une chaine trophique plus pauvre.

The permanency of more or less long period of ice cover, we can distinguish respectively the subglacial lakes and lakes under ice-free. The former are larger and relatively very deep, however under ice-free lakes are shallow and also have a poor trophic chain.