West Antarctic Ice Sheet grounding events on the Ross sea outer continental shelf during the middle Miocene

• Main Authors: Juan M Chow, Philip J Bart
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Antarctic; Pacific; Ross Sea; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1077.5007; http://www.geol.lsu.edu/bart/bart/Bio_files/Chow%20and%20Bart%202003.pdf

Abstract New seismic^stratigraphic analysis of the Ross Sea continental shelf suggests that there were a at least five shelfwide grounding events of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) during the middle Miocene. Although the number of WAIS grounding events generally matches the number of extreme N 18 O enrichments and eustatic lowstands, these results do not support the long-standing assumption that West Antarctica was substantially ice-free. Instead, seismicŝ tratigraphic evidence from the Ross Sea shelf documents waxing and waning of a well-developed WAIS in the marine environment at least on the Pacific sector of the West Antarctic continental shelf. ß