The history of Antarctic Peninsula glaciation

• Main Author: Peter F. Barker
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.484.7717; http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1047/srp/srp042/of2007-1047srp042.pdf

information on Cenozoic Antarctic Peninsula glaciation- an early middle Miocene (15-17 Ma) apparent glacial onset. Subsequent work, onshore and offshore, has greatly extended our knowledge but that early conclusion stands today. Cenozoic Antarctic Peninsula palaeoclimate as presently known is broadly consistent with global palaeoclimate proxies. Initial glacial onset was within the Eocene-Oligocene boundary interval (although earlier, short-lived glaciations have been proposed, from indirect measurements) and the peninsula probably became deglaciated in the earliest Miocene (ca. 24 Ma). The renewed middle Miocene glaciation probably continued to the present and, for the last 9 Myr at least, has persisted through glacial (orbital) cycles, with grounded ice advance to the shelf edge during maxima. Although orbital cyclicity affected earlier AP palaeoclimate also, the level of glaciation through a complete cycle is uncertain.