Contrasting sub-ice shelf, sub glacial and glacial marine deposition: Implications for ice shelf stability

Authors

• L. W. Boyd, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillFollow
• L. R. Bartek, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillFollow
• B. P. Luyendyk, University of California - Santa BarbaraFollow
• D. Wilson, University of California-Santa BarbaraFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2007

Comments

Citation: Boyd, L.S., L.R. Bartek, B. Luyendyk, and D. Wilson (2007), Contrasting sub-ice shelf, sub glacial and glacial marine deposition: Implications for ice shelf stability, in Antarctica: A Keystone in a Changing World – Online Proceedings of the 10th ISAES X, edited by A.K. Cooper and C.R. Raymond et al., USGS Open-File Report 2007-1047, Extended Abstract 152, 6 p.

Abstract

Data from cores collected from sites that were beneath the Ross Ice Shelf until 2000 and 2002 indicate that sub-ice shelf lithofacies are distinguishable from sub-glacial and glacial marine facies. Glacial marine sediment is characterized by diatom-rich, low-density, olive-green, sandy-muds, whereas sub-ice shelf sediment is defined by a lack of diatoms and muds that are enriched in silt and fine sand. Sub-glacial sediment is composed of diatom-poor, high density, coarse grained sandy-mud, rich in fine to coarse sized pebbles. Repetitive, fining-up packages, composed of fine-sand/silty-mud (distal sub ice-shelf deposits), grading into coarse pebbly-mud (sub ice-shelf proximal to the grounding line), suggest cyclicity in the movement of the grounding line over the last 11,000 yrs in the eastern Ross Sea. This research may facilitate a new understanding of ice-shelf dynamics, and possibly refine the current models for the Ross Ice Shelf’s recent glacial history.