Cenozoic glaciogenic sedimentary record in the Grove Mountains of East Antarctica

• Published in: Antarctic Science
• Main Authors: FANG, AIMIN, LIU, XIAOHAN, LI, XIAOLI, HUANG, FEIXIN, YU, LIANGJUN
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2005
• Subjects: Geology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Oceanography; Antarctic; East Antarctica; Prydz Bay; Harding; Grove Mountains; Mount Harding; Antarc*; Antarctic Science; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102005002646; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102005002646

During fieldwork of the 1998–99 and 1999–2000 Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE), three different kinds of Cenozoic sedimentary record were found in the Grove Mountains, which are in East Antarctica about 450km inland of Prydz Bay. These consist of (1) glaciogenic sedimentary erratics found in the moraine banks in the central area of Grove Mountains, which can be subdivided into four types according to different degrees of lithification as well as differences in inner structure and include in-situ diamicts; (2) palaeosols found in several small depressions in the southern slope of the Mount Harding; and (3) different kinds of glacial moraine floating on the surface of blue ice or around the foot of some nunataks. Preliminary results suggest that the in situ glaciogenic sediments were formed in the ice-sheet frontal area by the interaction of glacial movement and ice sheet melt water under climatic conditions warmer than today.