| Summary: | An understanding of how the Antarctic continent has reacted to past climates is necessary to accurately predict the response of its ice sheets to current and future climate changes. The thickness and proximity of the peripheral ice to the continental margin are key to the discussion and relate directly to the volume of ice within the East and West Antarctica ice sheets and their melt water contribution to sea level rise since the LGM. The Darwin/Hatherton is an outlet glacial system that drains the East Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Ross Sea through the Transantarctic Mountains. At the confluence of the Darwin Glacier and Ross Ice Shelf, Diamond Hill a relatively ice free area, contains evidence of glacial advances at altitudes up to 850m above the current ice surface. Here both ice sheets have created landforms that will allow a reconstruction of ice thickness. Cosmogenic dating will be used to create a timeline of post-LGM glacial retreat in which the influence of cold based ice must also be evaluated. This work will contribute fundamental data to an important international debate on the scale of the glaciation in the last ice age. It will help validate ice thickness reconstructions for the ice sheets and it may give insight into the timing and nature of Antarctic contributions to global sea-levels.
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