Episodes of Early Pleistocene West Antarctic Ice Sheet Retreat Recorded by Iceberg Alley Sediments ...

• Main Authors: Bailey, Ian, Hemming, Sidney, Reilly, Brendan T., Rollinson, Gavyn, Williams, Trevor, Weber, Michael E., Raymo, Maureen E., Peck, Victoria L., Ronge, Thomas A., Brachfeld, Stefanie, O’Connell, Suzanne, Tauxe, Lisa, Warnock, Jonathan P., Armbrecht, Linda, Cardillo, Fabricio G., Du, Zhiheng, Fauth, Gerson, Garcia, Marga, Glueder, Anna, Guitard, Michelle, Gutjahr, Marcus, Hernández-Almeida, Iván, Hoem, Frida S., Hwang, Ji-Hwan, Iizuka, Mutsumi, Kato, Yuji, Kenlee, Bridget, Martos, Yasmina M., Pérez, Lara F., Seki, Osamu, Tripathi, Shubham, Zheng, Xufeng
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2022
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Iceberg*; Scotia Sea; West Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000559377; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/559377

Ice loss in the Southern Hemisphere has been greatest over the past 30 years in West Antarctica. The high sensitivity of this region to climate change has motivated geologists to examine marine sedimentary records for evidence of past episodes of West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) instability. Sediments accumulating in the Scotia Sea are useful to examine for this purpose because they receive iceberg-rafted debris (IBRD) sourced from the Pacific- and Atlantic-facing sectors of West Antarctica. Here we report on the sedimentology and provenance of the oldest of three cm-scale coarse-grained layers recovered from this sea at International Ocean Discovery Program Site U1538. These layers are preserved in opal-rich sediments deposited similar to 1.2 Ma during a relatively warm regional climate. Our microCT-based analysis of the layer's in-situ fabric confirms its ice-rafted origin. We further infer that it is the product of an intense but short-lived episode of IBRD deposition. Based on the petrography of its sand ... : Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 37 (7) ...