Seismic stratigraphy of the Antarctic Peninsula pacific margin: A record of Pliocene-Pleistocene ice volume and paleoclimate

Journal Article · Tue Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1989 · Geology; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(1989)017<0731:SSOTAP>2.3.CO;2· OSTI ID:6852396

Larter, R D; Barker, P F ^[1]

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1. Natural Environment Research Council, Cambridge (England)

Multichannel seismic profiles across the Pacific margin of the Antarctic Peninsula show a series of oblique progradational sequences. These sequences exhibit a variety of unusual characteristics that suggest they were produced by the action of ice sheets grounded out to the shelf edge at times of glacial maximum. Reflection events from deeper stratigraphic levels, followed down the continental slope and onto the rise, overlie ocean crust of known age, showing that at least eight such glacial sequences have been deposited within the past 6 m.y. Similar groundings have probably occurred on most Antarctic margins, but the depositional record is particularly well preserved at this margin because of Pliocene-Pleistocene thermal subsidence. Neogene global sea-level fluctuations have been attributed to changes in volume of continental ice sheets. The depositional sequences on the Pacific margin of the Antarctic Peninsula are thought to record West Antarctic ice-sheet fluctuations directly. Further investigation of these sequences would assess the relation between fluctuations in ice volume and the low-latitude record of global sea-level change.

• OSTI ID: 6852396
• Journal Information: Geology; (USA), Journal Name: Geology; (USA) Vol. 17:8; ISSN GLGYB; ISSN 0091-7613
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
580000* -- Geosciences
ANTARCTIC REGIONS
ANTARCTICA
CENOZOIC ERA
CONTINENTAL MARGIN
DEPOSITION
DEPTH
DIMENSIONS
EARTH CRUST
FLUCTUATIONS
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGY
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
GLACIERS
ICE
LEVELS
OCEANIC CRUST
PACIFIC OCEAN
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
PALEONTOLOGY
PLEISTOCENE EPOCH
PLIOCENE EPOCH
POLAR REGIONS
QUATERNARY PERIOD
SEA LEVEL
SEAS
SEDIMENTATION
SEISMIC SURVEYS
STRATIGRAPHY
SURFACE WATERS
SURVEYS
TECTONICS
TERTIARY PERIOD
VARIATIONS