Holocene ice fluctuations on Brabant Island, Antarctic Peninsula

1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.D. Hansom ◽  
C.P. Flint

Recent geomorphological research in the ice-free areas of West Antarctica and the subantarctic islands has begun to provide an outline glacial chronology that helps our understanding of the late Quaternary history of ice sheets. However, there is a need for detailed studies of the glacial history of the Antarctic Peninsula area and its offshore islands before a general chronology can be fully reliable. In particular, evidence of Neoglacial glacial fluctuations in the area are imperfectly known in spite of work by Sugden & Clapperton (1977) on island groups in the Scotia Sea, Clapperton et al. (1978) on South Georgiaand Clapperton & Sugden (1982) on Alexander Island. The aim of this note is to present data relating to Holocene glacier fluctuations from the hitherto unstuded Brabant Island (64°15′S, 62°3′W).

1982 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 345 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.M. Clapperton ◽  
D.E. Sugden

George VI Sound lies between Alexander Island and the Antarctic Peninsula and is over 20 km wide and 500 km long. At present an ice shelf fills the sound and is nourished largely by ice from the Antarctic Peninsula which flows across the sound to ground against the coast of Alexander Island. Ice-free areas, comprising small nunataks and larger massifs, fringe both sides of the sound and contain evidence of the former glacial history of the area. This paper describes the field evidence in detail and uses geomorphological and sedimentary analyses to put forward a relative glacial chronology, constrained by two absolute dates. The chronology distinguishes: (1) a maximum state during which all ice-free areas were submerged by ice flowing into George VI Sound from both the Antarctic Peninsula and Alexander Island and thence along the sound as an ice stream. This occurred in the late Wisconsin and followed an interstadial or interglacial when George VI Sound was free of an ice shelf. (2) a valley-based stadial during overall deglaciation represented by pronounced marginal moraines on Alexander Island. (3) deglaciation to a stage where there was less landbased ice on Alexander Island than today. At this stage isostatic recovery was incomplete, relative sealevel was higher, and George VI Ice Shelf penetrated further into embayments on Alexander Island than at present. (4) probable disappearance of George VI Ice Shelf by 6.5 14C ka BP. (5) neoglacial readvance of local glaciers on Alexander Island to form three closely spaced terminal moraines and the growth of a new George VI Ice Shelf which was again more extensive than at present. (6) subsequent oscillations of both smaller Alexander Island glaciers and George VI Ice Shelf probably during the Little Ice Age. These fluctuations are similar to those in other sub-Antarctic Islands in the Scotia Sea and also in southern Chile.


1982 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 345-345
Author(s):  
C.M. Clapperton ◽  
D.E. Sugden

George VI Sound lies between Alexander Island and the Antarctic Peninsula and is over 20 km wide and 500 km long. At present an ice shelf fills the sound and is nourished largely by ice from the Antarctic Peninsula which flows across the sound to ground against the coast of Alexander Island. Ice-free areas, comprising small nunataks and larger massifs, fringe both sides of the sound and contain evidence of the former glacial history of the area. This paper describes the field evidence in detail and uses geomorphological and sedimentary analyses to put forward a relative glacial chronology, constrained by two absolute dates.The chronology distinguishes: (1) a maximum state during which all ice-free areas were submerged by ice flowing into George VI Sound from both the Antarctic Peninsula and Alexander Island and thence along the sound as an ice stream. This occurred in the late Wisconsin and followed an interstadial or interglacial when George VI Sound was free of an ice shelf.(2) a valley-based stadial during overall deglaciation represented by pronounced marginal moraines on Alexander Island.(3) deglaciation to a stage where there was less landbased ice on Alexander Island than today. At this stage isostatic recovery was incomplete, relative sealevel was higher, and George VI Ice Shelf penetrated further into embayments on Alexander Island than at present.(4) probable disappearance of George VI Ice Shelf by 6.5 14C ka BP.(5) neoglacial readvance of local glaciers on Alexander Island to form three closely spaced terminal moraines and the growth of a new George VI Ice Shelf which was again more extensive than at present.(6) subsequent oscillations of both smaller Alexander Island glaciers and George VI Ice Shelf probably during the Little Ice Age. These fluctuations are similar to those in other sub-Antarctic Islands in the Scotia Sea and also in southern Chile.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. W. Piper ◽  
Christopher P. G. Pereira

Flemish Pass is a basin in 1000 m water depth on the continental slope off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and has a Quaternary fill principally of turbidites. The late Quaternary history of the pass has been investigated using mid-range side-scan sonargraphs, high-resolution seismic profiles, and cores dated using C-14. The sequence of facies in the cores reveals six lithostratigraphic units deposited in the past 40 ka. At 15–19 ka and ?25–30 ka, sedimentation was dominated by debris-flow and turbidite deposits, together with hemipelagic deposits of similar clay-size mineralogy, derived from the Grand Banks. At other times, ice-rafting and hemipelagic sedimentation, principally of carbonate-rich sediment transported by the Labrador Current, predominated. A late Quaternary regional unconformity on the slope may reflect the effects of ice sheets reaching the shelf break, probably in the Early Wisconsinan. Late Wisconsinan resedimentation was not related to ice-marginal processes and probably resulted from iceberg impacts.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
H. Jay Zwally ◽  
John W. Robbins ◽  
Scott B. Luthcke ◽  
Bryant D. Loomis ◽  
Frédérique Rémy

Abstract GRACE and ICESat Antarctic mass-balance differences are resolved utilizing their dependencies on corrections for changes in mass and volume of the same underlying mantle material forced by ice-loading changes. Modeled gravimetry corrections are 5.22 times altimetry corrections over East Antarctica (EA) and 4.51 times over West Antarctica (WA), with inferred mantle densities 4.75 and 4.11 g cm−3. Derived sensitivities (Sg, Sa) to bedrock motion enable calculation of motion (δB0) needed to equalize GRACE and ICESat mass changes during 2003–08. For EA, δB0 is −2.2 mm a−1 subsidence with mass matching at 150 Gt a−1, inland WA is −3.5 mm a−1 at 66 Gt a−1, and coastal WA is only −0.35 mm a−1 at −95 Gt a−1. WA subsidence is attributed to low mantle viscosity with faster responses to post-LGM deglaciation and to ice growth during Holocene grounding-line readvance. EA subsidence is attributed to Holocene dynamic thickening. With Antarctic Peninsula loss of −26 Gt a−1, the Antarctic total gain is 95 ± 25 Gt a−1 during 2003–08, compared to 144 ± 61 Gt a−1 from ERS1/2 during 1992–2001. Beginning in 2009, large increases in coastal WA dynamic losses overcame long-term EA and inland WA gains bringing Antarctica close to balance at −12 ± 64 Gt a−1 by 2012–16.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 217
Author(s):  
Jiangping Zhu ◽  
Aihong Xie ◽  
Xiang Qin ◽  
Yetang Wang ◽  
Bing Xu ◽  
...  

The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) released its latest reanalysis dataset named ERA5 in 2017. To assess the performance of ERA5 in Antarctica, we compare the near-surface temperature data from ERA5 and ERA-Interim with the measured data from 41 weather stations. ERA5 has a strong linear relationship with monthly observations, and the statistical significant correlation coefficients (p < 0.05) are higher than 0.95 at all stations selected. The performance of ERA5 shows regional differences, and the correlations are high in West Antarctica and low in East Antarctica. Compared with ERA5, ERA-Interim has a slightly higher linear relationship with observations in the Antarctic Peninsula. ERA5 agrees well with the temperature observations in austral spring, with significant correlation coefficients higher than 0.90 and bias lower than 0.70 °C. The temperature trend from ERA5 is consistent with that from observations, in which a cooling trend dominates East Antarctica and West Antarctica, while a warming trend exists in the Antarctic Peninsula except during austral summer. Generally, ERA5 can effectively represent the temperature changes in Antarctica and its three subregions. Although ERA5 has bias, ERA5 can play an important role as a powerful tool to explore the climate change in Antarctica with sparse in situ observations.


1990 ◽  
Vol 102 (7) ◽  
pp. 969-982 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEVEN L. RENEAU ◽  
WILLIAM E. DIETRICH ◽  
DOUGLAS J. DONAHUE ◽  
A. J. TIMOTHY JULL ◽  
MEYER RUBIN

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