Early and middle Miocene ice sheet dynamics in the Ross Sea: Results from integrated core-log-seismic interpretation
Pérez, Lara F.; De Santis, Laura; McKay, R.; Larter, Robert D.; Ash, Jeanine; Bart, Phil J.; Böhm, Gualtiero; Brancatelli, Giuseppe; Browne, Imogen B.; Colleoni, Florence; Dodd, J.P.; Geletti, Riccardo; Harwood, D.M.; Kuhn, G.; Laberg, Jan Sverre; Leckie, R. Mark; Levy, R.H.; Marschalek, James; Mateo, Zenon; Naish, Timothy; Sangiorgi, Francesca; Shevenell, Amelia; Sorlien, Christopher C.; Van De Flierdt, Tina; IODP Expedition 374 Scientists
(2022) Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, volume 134, issue 1-2, pp. 348 - 370
(Article)
Abstract
Oscillations in ice sheet extent during early and middle Miocene are intermittently preserved in the sedimentary record from the Antarctic continental shelf, with widespread erosion occurring during major ice sheet advances, and open marine deposition during times of ice sheet retreat. Data from seismic reflection surveys and drill sites from
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Deep Sea Drilling Project Leg 28 and International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 374, located across the present-day middle continental shelf of the central Ross Sea (Antarctica), indicate the presence of expanded early to middle Miocene sedimentary sections. These include the Miocene climate optimum (MCO ca. 17–14.6 Ma) and the middle Miocene climate transition (MMCT ca. 14.6–13.9 Ma). Here, we correlate drill core records, wireline logs and reflection seismic data to elucidate the depositional architecture of the continental shelf and reconstruct the evolution and variability of dynamic ice sheets in the Ross Sea during the Miocene. Drill-site data are used to constrain seismic isopach maps that document the evolution of different ice sheets and ice caps which influenced sedimentary processes in the Ross Sea through the early to middle Miocene. In the early Miocene, periods of localized advance of the ice margin are revealed by the formation of thick sediment wedges prograding into the basins. At this time, morainal bank complexes are distinguished along the basin margins suggesting sediment supply derived from marine-terminating glaciers. During the MCO, biosiliceous-bearing sediments are regionally mapped within the depocenters of the major sedimentary basin across the Ross Sea, indicative of widespread open marine deposition with reduced glacimarine influence. At the MMCT, a distinct erosive surface is interpreted as representing large-scale marine-based ice sheet advance over most of the Ross Sea paleo-continental shelf. The regional mapping of the seismic stratigraphic architecture and its correlation to drilling data indicate a regional transition through the Miocene from growth of ice caps and inland ice sheets with marine-terminating margins, to widespread marine-based ice sheets extending across the outer continental shelf in the Ross Sea.
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Keywords: Geology
ISSN: 0016-7606
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Note: Funding Information: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement number 792773 for the West Antarctic Margin Signatures of Ice Sheet Evolution Project. The work was fully developed during two consecutive research stays of the first author at the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (Trieste, Italy) and the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington (Wellington, New Zealand). This project used data provided by the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). It is in the frame of National Antarctic Research Program PNRA16_00016 project and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Polar Science for Planet Earth Program. RMM was funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi Marsden Fund (grant 18-VUW-089). RMM, RHL, and TRN acknowledge the funding support providing by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment through the Antarctic Science Platform (ANTA1801). JSL acknowledges the support from European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling and the Research Council of Norway allowing for his participation on Expedition 374 and the post-cruise work. Most of the multichannel seismic profiles used in this work are available at the Antarctic Seismic Data Library System (https://sdls.ogs.trieste.it) under the auspices of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) policy. In addition, the PD90 single channel seismic data available thought the collaboration with J.B. Anderson and L. Bartek have been crucial for this work. We acknowledge S. Henrys participation in the seismic data compilation. We are also grateful to N. Wardell of the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS), Trieste, Italy, for his help with seismic technical issues. The seismic processing has been carried out with academic licenses from Emerson Paradigm for Echos software. The IHS-Kingdom project was supported through academic licenses released to OGS and BAS. Our heartfelt acknowledgment to the captain, crew, and technicians of the JOIDES Resolution who made IODP Expedition 374 possible. This research is a contribution to the SCAR program Past Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics. In addition, this work further contributes to the SCAR program Instabilities and Thresholds in Antarctica: The Antarctic contribution to global sea-level. We acknowledge the review of Karsten Gohl and an anonymous reviewer which greatly improved the initial version of this work. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Gold Open Access:. All Rights Reserved.
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