Seismic stratigraphic record of West Antarctic ice sheet fluctuations within the eastern basin of the Ross Sea, Antarctica

• Main Author: Loth, Audrey Susan
• Other Authors: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geological Sciences, Bartek, Louis Robert
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2009
• Subjects: Antarctic; Austral; Ross Sea; The Antarctic; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.17615/8kh9-j834; https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/5712m800s?file=thumbnail; https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/5712m800s

Using geophysical data collected aboard the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer during the austral summer of 2004 the stratigraphy of the up-dip portion of the Antarctic margin was studied. Analysis of up-dip SCS profiles illustrated an incomplete glacial record with multiple thin, polar Plio-Pleistocene sequences reflecting the presence of Northern Hemisphere ice, and fewer, thick Early Miocene sequences indicating perhaps a subpolar basal regime. Across the shelf of the Eastern Basin, the majority of the sequences terminate mid-shelf suggesting that not all ice sheet events are the same magnitude, which may be a function of climate change or autogenic ice sheet fluctuations. Through quantitative analysis the up-dip stratigraphy of the Eastern Basin was shown to be highly heterogeneous. This work has provided a more robust illustration of the complexity of glacial stratigraphy in the up-dip setting, and it is possible to see a reflection of changing climate preserved in the seismic signature of the NBP 0306 profiles.