Tafoni show postglacial and modern wind azimuths that are similar at Bunger Hills

• Published in: Antarctic Science
• Main Authors: Gore, Damian B., Leishman, Michelle R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: biogeography; erosion; Holocene; palaeowind; sea salt; Antarc*; Antarctic Science; Antarctica; East Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/866d7b15-e155-4fd6-b820-989e049db8a2; https://doi.org/10.1017/S095410201900035X; https://research-management.mq.edu.au/ws/files/114710811/108593368_AV.pdf; http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081077430&partnerID=8YFLogxK

The directions of strong winds are important for the distribution of marine salt spray, rock weathering, lake chemistry and the distribution of vegetation in Bunger Hills, a coastal ice-free oasis in East Antarctica. Present-day strong winds (> 10 m s −1 ) dominantly blow from 118 ± 21 degrees true (°T; ± 1 SD). Orientated tafoni (weathering pits) might form in bedrock surfaces by salt and ice crystallization, thermal stress and saltating sand particles, recording the orientation of a strongly directional wind field since the last deglaciation, which commenced > 30 000 years ago. The orientations of these tafoni, at 101 ± 18°T for 686 measurements at 28 sites, are indistinguishable from the direction of modern-day strong winds (> 10 m s −1 ), indicating that the orientation of the slope of the ice sheet has been stable throughout the last 10 000 years during the Holocene.