The meteorite collection sites of Antarctica

• Published in: Meteoritics
• Main Authors: Cassidy, William, Harvey, Ralph, Schutt, John, Delisle, Georg, Yanai, Keizo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1992
• Subjects: Allan Hills; Antarctic; Beardmore; David Glacier; East Antarctica; Elephant Moraine; Frontier Mountain; Lewis Cliff; Mackay; Mackay Glacier; Reckling Moraine; Reckling Peak; Victoria Land; Walcott; Walcott Névé; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1945-5100.1992.tb01073.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1945-5100.1992.tb01073.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1945-5100.1992.tb01073.x

Abstract— Antarctic meteorites have been and are being well studied but the potential for glaciological and climatological information in the sites where they are found is only beginning to be realized. To date, meteorite stranding surfaces have been identified only in East Antarctica: (1) The MacKay Glacier/David Glacier region contains the Allan Hills and the Reckling Moraine/Elephant Moraine stranding surfaces. Because the Allan Hills Main Icefield has a large proportion of meteorites with long terrestrial ages, these concentrations of meteorites must have had catchment areas extending well inland, in contrast to the present. Where known, bedrock topography is mesa‐like in form and influences ice flow directions. Ice levels at the Allan Hills may have been higher by 50–100 m in the past. Reckling Moraine and Elephant Moraine are located on a long patch of ice running westward from Reckling Peak; the ice appears to be pouring over a bedrock escarpment. (2) In North Victoria Land, ice diverges around Frontier Mountain and flows into a site behind the barrier where ablation occurs extensively. It is proposed that meteorites and rocks were dumped by ice flow at the mouth of a valley in the lee of the mountain at the site where a meltwater pond existed, in a depression produced by ablation. Later, the pond migrated headward along the valley to a point where it is today, leaving a morainal deposit with the meteorites at a higher level. (3) Between the Beardmore and Law Glaciers, ice flows sluggishly into the southwestern margin of the Walcott Névé. Northeastern sections of the Walcott are virtually barren of meteorites. The entering Plateau ice is diverted northward to flow along the base of Lewis Cliff. This flow apparently terminates in an ice tongue protruding into a vast moraine, where a very large concentration of meteorites was found on the ice. This final segment of flowing ice is called the Lewis Cliff Ice Tongue. Meteorite Moraine, a subsidiary occurrence 2 km to the northeast, is also found against ...