We study open subgroups G of SL2(Z ℓ ) n in terms of some associated Lie algebras without assuming that G is a pro-ℓ group, thereby extending a theorem of Pink. The result has applications to the study of families of Galois representations.Lemma 2.1. The power series log(1 + t) = n≥1 (−1) n−1 t n n converges for t ∈ ℓZ ℓ (respectively for t ∈ ℓM 2 (Z ℓ )), and establishes a bijection between 1+ℓ 1+v Z ℓ and ℓ 1+v Z ℓ (resp. between B ℓ (1+v) andThe inverse function is given by the power series exp t = n≥0 t n n! , which converges for. Furthermore, for every t ∈ ℓ 1+v Z ℓ we have v ℓ log(1+t) = v ℓ (t), and for every tand n ≥ 2 be an integer. Suppose that A ≡ 0 (mod 4) and2.2 Subgroups of SL 2 (Z ℓ ) n and Z ℓ -Lie algebrasIn this section we consider various properties of closed subgroups of SL 2 (Z ℓ ) n , including their Lie algebras, generating sets, and derived subgroups.Lemma 2.3. Let n be a positive integer and G be a closed subgroup of SL 2 (Z ℓ ) n . The collection of all normal pro-ℓ subgroups of G has a unique maximal element, which we denote by N (G).Likewise, if G is a subgroup of SL 2 (F ℓ ) n , the collection of all normal subgroups of G whose order is a power of ℓ admits a unique maximal element, which we denote again by N (G).Proof. Denote by π : G → SL 2 (F ℓ ) n the canonical projection and let N be a normal, pro-ℓ subgroup of G. Clearly π(N ) is an ℓ-group that is normal in G(ℓ), so it suffices to show thatTo treat the finite case consider first n = 1. Then G is a subgroup of SL 2 (F ℓ ), and it easy to see that the collection of its maximal normal subgroups of order a power of ℓ has a maximal element: it follows from the Dickson classification that this is given by the unique ℓ-Sylow if G is of Borel type, and by the trivial group otherwise. Finally, if G is a subgroup of SL 2 (F ℓ ) n with n > 1, we denote by G i the projection of G on the i-th factor SL 2 (F ℓ ); it is then immediate to check that N (G) = (g 1 , . . . , g n ) ∈ G g i ∈ N (G i ) .Lemma 2.4. Let t be a non-negative integer. Let W ⊆ sl 2 (Z ℓ ) be a Lie subalgebra that does not reduce to zero modulo ℓ t+1 . Suppose that W is stable under conjugation by B ℓ (s) for some non-negative integer s, where s ≥ 2 if ℓ = 2 and s ≥ 1 if ℓ = 3 or 5. Then W contains the open set ℓ t+4s+4v sl 2 (Z ℓ ).Proof. Fix an element w of W that does not vanish modulo ℓ t+1 and write w = µ x x + µ y y + µ h h for some µ x , µ y , µ h ∈ Z ℓ , where