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Late Wisconsin and Early Holocene Glacial History, Inner Ross Embayment, Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

George H. Denton ,
James G. Bockheim ,
Scott C. Wilson  and
Minze Stuiver
George H. Denton
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Institute for Quaternary Studies, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469
James G. Bockheim
Affiliation:
Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Scott C. Wilson
Affiliation:
Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Minze Stuiver
Affiliation:
Quaternary Isotopes Laboratory, Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
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Abstract

Lateral drift sheets of outlet glaciers that pass through the Transantarctic Mountains constrain past changes of the huge Ross ice drainage system of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Drift stratigraphy suggests correlation of Reedy III (Reedy Glacier), Beardmore (Beardmore Glacier), Britannia (Hatherton/Darwin Glaciers), Ross Sea (McMurdo Sound), and “younger” (Terra Nova Bay) drifts; radiocarbon dates place the outer limits of Ross Sea drift in late Wisconsin time at 24,000–13,000 yr B.P. Outlet-glacier profiles from these drifts constrain late Wisconsin ice-sheet surface elevations. Within these constraints, we give two extreme late Wisconsin reconstructions of the Ross ice drainage system. Both show little elevation change of the polar plateau coincident with extensive ice-shelf grounding along the inner Ross Embayment. However, in the central Ross Embayment one reconstruction shows floating shelf ice, whereas the other shows a grounded ice sheet. Massive late Wisconsin/Holocene recession of grounded ice from the western Ross Embayment, which was underway at 13,040 yr B.P. and completed by 6600-6020 yr B.P., was accompanied by little change in plateau ice levels inland of the Transantarctic Mountains. Sea level and basal melting probably controlled the extent of grounded ice in the Ross Embayment. The interplay between the precipitation (low late Wisconsin and high Holocene values) and the influence of grounding on outlet glaciers (late Wisconsin thickening and late Wisconsin/Holocene thinning, with effects dying out inland) probably controlled minor elevation changes of the polar plateau.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , March 1989 , pp. 151 - 182
Copyright
University of Washington

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