Autumn-winter anomalous variations in bottom water and sediment temperatures in Lake Teletskoe

We discuss the results of bottom temperature monitoring run in October through December 2005 in the deepwater basin of Lake Teletskoe at a lake depth of 320 m using an autonomous recorder. The obtained temperature patterns of water and sediments to a depth of ∼1.4 m show sudden large changes. Bottom water temperature fluctuated between 2.9 and 4 °C, and the sediment geothermal gradient changed from –360 to +170 mK/m for the period of measurements. Water temperature became 0.6 °C warmer through November and suddenly switched to cooling after 5 December, and the drop reached 1.15 °C for the following 22 days. The change in water temperature caused the respective change in sediments, namely, gave rise to a positive geothermal gradient. Estimating the deep component of geothermal gradient (heat flow) with this climate noise requires a longer experiment of more than one year.