Postglacial evolution of marine and lacustrine water bodies in Bunger Hills

Unglaciated coastal areas in East Antarctica provide records of past ice sheet and glacier fluctuations and subsequent environmental conditions. In this paper we review lithological, geochemical, diatom and radiocarbon data from sediment records from inland and epishelf lakes in Bunger Hills, East A...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antarctic Science
Main Authors: Berg, Sonja, Melles, Martin, Gore, Damian B., Verkulich, Sergei, Pushina, Zina V.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
East Antarctica
epishelf lakes
glacier fluctuations
lakes
relative sea level
sediments
Algae Lake
Bunger Hills
Antarc*
Antarctic Science
Antarctica
Ice Sheet
Online Access:https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/7f7aef6f-60cd-4cfe-972b-0fd8264d83ea
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102019000476
https://research-management.mq.edu.au/ws/files/114714433/108593733_AV.pdf
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081069925&partnerID=8YFLogxK
Description
Summary:Unglaciated coastal areas in East Antarctica provide records of past ice sheet and glacier fluctuations and subsequent environmental conditions. In this paper we review lithological, geochemical, diatom and radiocarbon data from sediment records from inland and epishelf lakes in Bunger Hills, East Antarctica. While some hilltops were unglaciated during the Last Glacial Maximum, till deposits in the lake basins indicate infilling by glacier ice prior to the Holocene. Proglacial sedimentation occurred in lakes during the early Holocene. Around 9.6 ka BP , deposition of marine sapropel started under relatively warm climate conditions. Inland lakes were affected by high clastic input from meltwater runoff until c. 7.9 ka BP , when deposition became highly organic and biogenic proxies indicate a period of cooler conditions. Epishelf lakes experienced a decrease in water exchange with the ocean and increased freshwater input around 7.7 ± 0.2 ka BP and after 2.2 ka BP . This likely resulted from grounding line advances of the bounding glaciers, which could be either controlled by relative sea level (RSL) lowering and/or climate-driven glacier dynamics. The absence of marine sediments in the postglacial record of Algae Lake indicate that Holocene RSL likely reached a maximum at or below 10 m above present sea level.

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