Sediment accumulation rates from the Ross Sea continental shelf and deepwater sites around Antarctica: A physical proxy for the onset of polar conditions

• Main Authors: Samuel W. Gray, Philip J. Bart
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Ross Sea; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.610.3320; http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1047/ea/of2007-1047ea140.pdf

Summary During the Cenozoic, the climate progressed from global warmth into an icehouse world. The present day cold Antarctic ice sheet produces little basalt melt water, in contrast to temperate glaciers. Therefore, the transition from temperate to polar conditions should have resulted in marked decrease in sediment delivery to adjacent margins. In this study, sediment accumulation rates were calculated from the Ross Sea outer continental shelf and proximal deepwater Ocean Drilling Program and Deep Sea Drilling Project sites. The compilation of sedimentation rates showed most sites experienced a significant decrease following the middle Miocene cooling and again in the late Pliocene. The abrupt shifts in sediment accumulation rate may represent transitions to largely dry-based conditions for the Antarctic ice sheet at these times, separated by an intervening return to warmer conditions in the Pliocene.