The Deglaciation of Outer Marguerite Trough, Antarctic Peninsula

• Main Author: Spelman, David
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Marguerite; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.8754; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/263412

Marguerite Trough is a 370 km long cross-shelf trough on the western continental margin of the Antarctic Peninsula. At the Last Glacial Maximum, this trough is thought to have been occupied by a fast flowing ice stream terminating at the shelf break (Heroy and Anderson, 2005). This project is concerned with examining the submarine landforms and acoustic stratigraphy of this palaeo ice stream and comparing calibrated radiocarbon age estimates for grounding-zone retreat, to other age estimates published in the RAISED consortium report (? Cofaigh et al., 2014), to further constrain the absolute chronology of ice stream retreat across the outer shelf area of Marguerite Trough. The JR284 research cruise of the R.R.S. James Clark Ross in early 2014 acquired multi-beam swath bathymetry data, Topographic Parametric Sonar (TOPAS) sub-bottom profiles and two gravity cores. This investigation will utilise a variety of geophysical and geological data sets to thoroughly examine the seafloor morphological and sedimentological evidence of former ice stream flow dynamics and till genesis. The implications of the interpreted evolution of this former ice stream will be considered in relation to the wider ice-sheet deglaciation of the Antarctic Peninsula?s continental shelf since the Last Glacial Maximum, and the models for predicting the ice dynamics of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice-Sheet in response to external influences, such as anthropogenic climate change.