Cenozoic Glacial and Tectonic History of the Transantarctic Mountains in the McMurdo Sound Region: Recent Progress from Drilling and Related Studies

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Authors: Barrett, P. J., McKelvey, B. C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1981
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Antarctic; Ross Sea; McMurdo Sound; East Antarctic Ice Sheet; Transantarctic Mountains; Hayes; Antarc*; Ice cap; Ice Sheet; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247400003958; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247400003958

Two of the outstanding problems in Antarctic earth sciences are the early history of the East Antarctic ice sheet, and the history of the Transantarctic Mountains. These two problems may well be linked, for if the initial uplift of the Transantarctic Mountains was sufficient to promote a permanent ice cap, this may have triggered formation of the East Antarctic ice sheet in the manner oudined by Drewry (1975, p 266). Glomar Challenger in 1973 made the first major breakthrough concerning early history of the ice sheet by recovering cores from the centre of the Ross Sea; they show that ice rafting began there 25 Ma BP and has been going on ever since (Hayes and others, 1975). However, the core data give little indication of the extent of ice cover, or of the climatic changes that led to expanded ice cover which produced the ice-rafted debris.