Sea-floor and sea-ice conditions in the western Weddell Sea, Antarctica, around the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance

• Main Authors: Dowdeswell, JA, Batchelor, CL, Dorschel, B, Benham, TJ, Christie, FDW, Dowdeswell, EK, Montelli, A, Arndt, JE, Gebhardt, C
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2020
• Subjects: acoustic stratigraphy; continental shelf; continental slope; icebergs; sea-floor landforms; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Antarc*; Antarctica; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/305656; https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.52734

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Marine-geophysical evidence on sea-floor morphology and shallow acoustic stratigraphy are used to examine the substrate around the location at which Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship <jats:italic>Endurance</jats:italic> sank in 1915 and on the continental slope-shelf sedimentary system above this site in the western Weddell Sea. Few signs of turbidity-current and mass-wasting activity are found near or upslope of the wreck site, and any such activity was probably linked to full-glacial higher-energy conditions when ice last advanced across the continental shelf. The wreck is well below the maximum depth of iceberg keels and will not have been damaged by ice-keel ploughing. The wreck has probably been draped by only a few centimetres of fine-grained sediment since it sank in 1915. Severe modern sea-ice conditions hamper access to the wreck site. Accessing and investigating the wreck of <jats:italic>Endurance</jats:italic> in the Weddell Sea therefore represents a significant challenge. An ice-breaking research vessel is required, and even this would not guarantee that the site could be reached. Heavy sea-ice cover at the wreck site, similar to that encountered by <jats:italic>Agulhus II</jats:italic> during the Weddell Sea Expedition 2019, would also make the launch and recovery of autonomous underwater vehicles and remotely operated vehicles deployed to investigate the <jats:italic>Endurance</jats:italic> wreck problematic.</jats:p> The Flotilla Foundation Marine Archaeological Consultants Switzerland