Alan K Cooper

Topographic controls on post-Oligocene changes in ice-sheet dynamics, Prydz Bay region, East Antarctica

Within the general trend of post-Eocene cooling, the largest and oldest outlet of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet underwent a change from ice-cliff to ice-stream and/or ice-shelf dynamics, with an associated switch from line-source to fan sedimentation. Available geological data reveal little about the causes of these changes in ice dynamics during the Miocene Epoch, or the subsequent effects on Pliocene‐Pleistocene ice-sheet history. Icesheet numerical modeling reveals that bed morphology was probably responsible for driving changes in both ice-sheet extent and dynamics in the Lambert-Amery system at Prydz Bay. The modeling shows how the topography and bathymetry of the Lambert graben and Prydz Bay control ice-sheet extent and flow. The changes in bathymetric volume required for shelf-edge glaciation correlate well with the Prydz Channel fan sedimentation history. This suggests a negative feedback between erosion and glaciation, whereby the current graben is overdeepened to such an extent that shelf-edge glaciation is now not possible, even if a Last Glacial Maximum environment recurs. We conclude that the erosional history of the Lambert graben and Prydz Bay in combination with the uplift histories of the surrounding mountains are responsible for the evolution of this section of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, once the necessary initial climatic conditions for glaciation were achieved at the start of the Oligocene Epoch.

Evidence for orbitally controlled size variations of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during the late Miocene

Ocean Drilling Program Site 1165 penetrated drift sediments on the East Antarctic continental rise and recovered sediments from a low-energy depositional environment. The sediments are characterized by prominent alternations between a green to greenish-gray diatom-bearing hemipelagic facies and gray to dark gray hemiturbiditic facies. Our investigation of an upper Miocene section, using high-resolution color spectra, multisensor core logs, and X-ray fluorescence scans, reveals that sedimentation changes occur at Milankovitch orbital frequencies of obliquity and precession. We use this finding to derive an astronomical calibrated time scale and to calculate iron mass-accumulation rates, as a proxy for sediment-accumulation rates. Terrigenous iron fluxes change by as much as 100% during each obliquity cycle. This change and an episodic pattern of enhanced ice-rafted debris deposition during times of deglaciation provide evidence for a dynamic and likely wet-based late Miocene East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) that underwent large size variations at orbital time scales. The dynamic behavior of the EAIS implies that a significant proportion of the variability seen in oxygen isotope records of the late Miocene reflects Antarctic ice-volume changes.

Cenozoic climate history from seismic reflection and drilling studies on the Antarctic continental margin

Seismic stratigraphic studies and scientific drilling of the Antarctic continental margin have yielded clues to the evolution of Cenozoic climates, depositional paleoenvironments and paleoceanographic conditions. This paper draws on studies of the former Antarctic Offshore Stratigraphy Project and others to review the geomorphic and lithostratigraphic offshore features that give insights into the long-duration (m.y.) and short-term (k.y.) changes that document the great variability of Cenozoic Antarctic paleoenvironments. The lithologic drilling record documents non-glacial (pre-early Eocene) to full-glacial (late Pliocene to Holocene) times, and documents times of cyclic ice-sheet fluctuations at k.y. scales (early Miocene to Pliocene and Holocene). Times of significant change in types and/or amounts of glaciation are also seen in the offshore lithologic record (early Oligocene, mid-Miocene, early Pliocene). Seismic data illustrate large-scale geomorphic features that point to massive sediment erosion and dispersal by ice sheets and paleoceanographic processes (e.g. cross-shelf troughs, slope-fans, rise-drifts). The commonality of these features to East and West Antarctica since late Eocene time points to a continent that has been intermittently covered, partially to completely, by glaciers and ice sheets. The greatest advances in our understanding of paleoenvironments and the processes that control them have been achieved from scientific drilling, and future progress depends on a continuation of such drilling.

Current controlled deposition on the Wilkes Land continental rise, Antarctica

Abstract Turbidite, contourite and hemipelagic deposition are the main components of Wilkes Land continental rise sedimentation above the regional unconformity WL2. On the continental shelf, unconformity WL2 marks the start of shelf progradation, which is interpreted to correspond with the onset of glacial conditions in this segment of the east Antarctic margin. Unusually large (i.e. up to 900 m relief and 18 km between levee crests) channel-levee deposits, and high relief (up to 490 m) mounded contourite-style deposits develop above unconformity WLlb. Unconformity WLlb overlies unconformity WL2 and is interpreted to have formed under a fully continental glacial regime where ice streams reached the palaeo-continental shelf edge. Based on an analysis of multichannel seismic profiles and sediment cores, we differentiate three phases in the development of the sedimentary unit between WLlb and the present seafloor. From older to younger these are: Phase 1, dominated by turbidite deposition; Phase 2, dominated by turbidite and contourite deposition with significant mound building; and Phase 3, dominated by turbidite and contourite deposition without active mound building. We hypothesize that building of the mounds during Phase 2 corresponded with times of expansion of the Antarctic ice-sheet when vast amounts of sediment were eroded from the continent and continental shelf. The large amount of unsorted glacial sediment supplied to the outer shelf apparently travelled down the slope canyons and rise channels as turbidity current flows to feed the usually large continental rise channel-levee complexes. The suspended fines of the turbidity flows were then entrained in a palaeo-nepheloid layer and carried by the westward flowing palaeo-contour currents until their deposition in the mounds. During Phase 3, sediment supply to the continental rise, although important in volume and capable of turbidite and contour-current deposition, was insufficient to support further building of the mounds. We believe the decrease in sediment supply to the continental rise from Phase 2 to Phase 3 could be the result of a change on sediment depocentres, with most of the sediment supplied to the margin during Phase 3 being trapped on the continental shelf. We believe that ultimately these changes are related to the stage of glacial evolution of the continent.

Introduction to ‘Antarctic Cenozoic palaeoenvironments: geologic record and models’

The Antarctic region has profoundly aiected the global climates of the past 50 million years, in£uencing sea levels, atmospheric composition and dynamics, and ocean circulation. A greater understanding of this region and the Antarctic cryosphere is crucial to a broader understanding of the global climates and palaeoceanography at all scales. Much of the information obtained during the last two decades derives from studies of sedimentary sequences drilled in and around Antarctica. Eight Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) legs have contributed signi¢cantly to the understanding of this evolution. These legs include Leg 113 in the Weddell Sea (Barker et al., 1988, 1990), Leg 114 in the Subantarctic South Atlantic (Ciesielski et al., 1988, 1991), Leg 119 in Prydz Bay and on Kerguelen Plateau (Barron et al., 1989, 1991), Leg 120 on Kerguelen Plateau (Schlich et al., 1989; Wise et al., 1992), Leg 177 in the southeast Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean (Gersonde et al., 1999), Leg 178 on the Antarctic Peninsula (Barker et al., 2002), Leg 188 in Prydz Bay (O’Brien et al., 2001), and Leg 189 in the Tasmanian region (Exon et al., 2001). More recently, a series of three holes were drilled in McMurdo Sound, Ross Sea, as part of the Cape Roberts Project (CRP; Cape Roberts Science Team, 1998 1999, 2000; Hambrey et al., 1998; Barrett et al., 2000, 2001). In spite of these eiorts, which have signi¢cantly advanced our understanding of the Cenozoic tectonics and palaeoenvironments of the Antarctic region, important questions and problems remain unresolved. Chief amongst these are the timing of the onset of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), the causes of the cooling events at around 24 and 14 Ma, and the warming events of the mid-Pliocene and Marine Isotope Stages 31 (1.07 Ma) and 11 (0.36 Ma) (Shackleton et al., 1995). Due to the nearly complete ice coverage of the Antarctic continent, a record of the palaeoenvironmental changes is most readily accessible from the oishore sedimentary strata of the Antarctic continental margin. Such changes have been the focus of a coordinated eiort to acquire the seismic and drill-core data from the Antarctic margin to derive and model the palaeoenvironments of the past 130 m.y. The eiort has been led by the ANTarctic Oishore STRATigraphy (ANTOSTRAT), a group that works under the

New inferences on Antarctic Ice Sheets and Cenozoic paleoclimates

The history and behavior of Antarctic ice sheets over millions of years is increasingly of interest as the rising carbon dioxide levels of today exceed any in the ice core record of the last 0.4 m.y. Yet the changes and events that formed these ancient ice sheets are not well understood. A record of these changes lies in sedimentary strata around the Antarctic margin, and such changes have been the focus of a coordinated effort at the Antarctic margin to acquire seismic and drill core data that are needed to derive and model paleoenvironments of the past 65 m.y. The effort is being led by the Antarctic Offshore Stratigraphy Project (ANTOSTRAT), a group that works under the aegis of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).