Reconstruction of ice flow across the Bunger Hills, East Antarctica

In the Bunger Hills, mapping of glacial drift sheets and examination of striae patterns and other palaeo-ice flow direction indicators show that the largely ice-free region records the imprint of ice sheet expansion(s) during the late Cenozoic. In particular, ice moulded features and striae in south...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antarctic Science
Main Authors: Augustinus, Paul C., Gore, Damian B., Leishman, Michelle R., Zwartz, Dan, Colhoun, Eric A.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1997
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102097000424
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102097000424
Description
Summary:In the Bunger Hills, mapping of glacial drift sheets and examination of striae patterns and other palaeo-ice flow direction indicators show that the largely ice-free region records the imprint of ice sheet expansion(s) during the late Cenozoic. In particular, ice moulded features and striae in southern Bunger Hills suggest formation during at least two episodes of ice sheet expansion, although whether they were formed during separate events or merely different phases of the same expansion of the ice sheet is not able to be discerned at present. The older event relates to thin ice with flow constrained by the topography, whilst the younger event relates to regional expansion of thick ice across the area. Discrimination of the order of emplacement of the cross-cutting striae patterns is possible at a number of sites. Palaeo-ice flow indicators confirm that ice sheet expansion over southern Bunger Hills was purely from the southern and eastern margins, although minor advances of the north-east flowing Edisto Glacier onto coastal areas occurred following retreat of the last extensive ice sheet phase.