A review of geomorphic processes and landforms in the Dry Valleys of southern Victoria Land: implications for evaluating climate change and ice-sheet stability

Marchant, David R.; Mackay, S. L.; Lamp, Jennifer L.; Hayden, A. T.; Head, J. W.

doi:10.1144/sp381.10

Cited by 19 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 210 publications

(307 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Clasts at the ground surface tend to stay at the surface; they are not subjected to repeated episodes of burial and reexposure as is typical of saturated active layers in the Arctic [ Hallet and Waddington , ] or even within the relatively warm soils in low‐elevation coastal regions adjacent to McMurdo Sound [ Marchant and Head , ]. The implication is that small‐scale weathering features on exposed rock surfaces are most probably related to atmospheric processes, rather than to impacts, collisions, or physical/chemical weathering associated with clast movement and burial/reexposure via cryoturbation [ Marchant et al ., ].…”

Section: Background and Physical Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The spalling or detachment of thin flakes from exposed rock surfaces is an important erosional process operating across a range of rock types and climatic settings. Understanding the precise mechanisms responsible for spalling helps elucidate rates of long‐term erosion and landscape evolution [ Marchant et al ., ]; assists in the development of process models used to interpret the inventory of cosmogenic nuclides in surface rocks [ Gordon and Dorn , ; Gunnell et al ., ; Mackay and Marchant , ; Muzikar , , ]; and documents the potential for degradation of building stones, rock art, and monuments [ Benito et al ., ; Cardell et al ., ; Hall et al ., ; McCabe et al ., ; Mol and Viles , ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Thermal stress weathering and the spalling of Antarctic rocks

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Using in situ field measurements, laboratory analyses, and numerical modeling, we test the potential efficacy of thermal stress weathering in the flaking of millimeter‐thick alteration rinds observed on cobbles and boulders of Ferrar Dolerite on Mullins Glacier, McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV). In particular, we examine whether low‐magnitude stresses, arising from temperature variations over time, result in thermal fatigue weathering, yielding slow crack propagation along existing cracks and ultimate flake detachment. Our field results show that during summer months clasts of Ferrar Dolerite experience large‐temperature gradients across partially detached alteration rinds (>4.7°C mm−1) and abrupt fluctuations in surface temperature (up to 12°C min−1); the latter are likely due to the combined effects of changing solar irradiation and cooling from episodic winds. The results of our thermal stress model, coupled with subcritical crack growth theory, suggest that thermal stresses induced at the base of thin alteration rinds ~2 mm thick, common on rocks exposed for ~105 years, may be sufficient to cause existing cracks to propagate under present‐day meteorological forcing, eventually leading to rind detachment. The increase in porosity observed within alteration rinds relative to unaltered rock interiors, as well as predicted decreases in rind strength based on allied weathering studies, likely facilitates thermal stress crack propagation through a reduction of fracture toughness. We conclude that thermal stress weathering may be an active, though undervalued, weathering process in hyperarid, terrestrial polar deserts such as the stable upland region of the MDV.

show abstract

Section: Background and Physical Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal stress weathering and the spalling of Antarctic rocks

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Stagnant blocks of glacial ice are common at the margins of retreating glaciers on Earth, and may have existed and been preserved on Mars by a thick insulating layer of sublimation till. Thermal cycling and erosion of the exposed plateau scarps contributed to rockfalls and rockslides on top of the glacial ice, as seen in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (Swanger et al, 2010;Kowalewski et al, 2011;Marchant et al, 2013;MacKay et al, 2014). Through this process, a rocky supraglacial till developed and was integrated with the dust-rich sublimation lag produced from initial downwasting of the ice-sheet.…”

Section: Ice-sheet Retreatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extensive Middle Amazonian mantling of debris aprons and plains in Deuteronilus Mensae, Mars: Implications for the record of mid-latitude glaciation

Baker

Head

2015

Icarus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…In an effort to elucidate the climatic significance of some long‐lived viscous flow features in Antarctica, we initiated in 1995 a suite of detailed geomorphological and geophysical studies of buried ice in interior regions of the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) [ Kowalewski et al ., , , ; Marchant and Head , ; Marchant et al ., ; Sugden et al ., ; Swanger and Marchant , ; Swanger et al ., ]. Our initial results demonstrated that buried ice can survive for millions of years [ Marchant et al ., ; Sugden et al ., ], that sublimation and subsequent vapor diffusion through capping debris can be extremely slow on the order of <10 −1 mm a −1 [ Kowalewski et al ., , , ; Marchant et al ., ], and that the origin of buried ice deposits varies with local microclimate conditions [ Marchant and Head , ; Marchant et al ., ; Swanger et al ., ]. Here we focus on the origin and internal ice‐flow dynamics of two viscous flow features, previously mapped as cold‐based debris‐covered alpine glaciers: the Mullins valley and Friedman valley debris‐covered glaciers (hereafter informally termed Mullins Glacier and Friedman Glacier).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Cold‐based debris‐covered glaciers: Evaluating their potential as climate archives through studies of ground‐penetrating radar and surface morphology

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We describe the morphology and internal structure of Mullins and Friedman Glaciers, two cold-based, debris-covered alpine glaciers that occur in neighboring valleys in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Both glaciers are overlain by a single, dry supraglacial debris layer (8-75 cm thick); each mantling debris layer is marked with near-identical patterns of arcuate ridges and steps, as well as corresponding changes in bulk grain size, meter-scale surface topography, and thermal contraction crack polygons. Results from 24 km of ground-penetrating radar data show that the ice within the uppermost 1-2 km of Mullins and Friedman Glaciers is essentially free of englacial debris (<1% by volume) but thereafter is interspersed with bands of englacial debris (each <3 m thick and dipping up glacier) that intersect the ice surface at all major surface ridges and steps. The similarity in number and pattern of englacial debris bands and corresponding surface ridges and steps across both glaciers, along with model results and observations that call for negligible basal entrainment, is best explained by episodic environmental change at valley headwalls. Our working hypothesis is that layers of englacial debris originate as supraglacial lags that form in ice-accumulation areas during times of reduced net ice accumulation; following renewed net ice accumulation, these lags are subsequently buried by snow and ice, flow englacially, and intersect the ice surface to impart distinctive changes in the texture of supraglacial debris and topographic relief. The implication is that the englacial structure and surface morphology of these cold-based, debris-covered glaciers preserves a consistent record of climate and environmental change.

show abstract

A review of geomorphic processes and landforms in the Dry Valleys of southern Victoria Land: implications for evaluating climate change and ice-sheet stability

Cited by 19 publications

References 210 publications

Thermal stress weathering and the spalling of Antarctic rocks

Thermal stress weathering and the spalling of Antarctic rocks

Extensive Middle Amazonian mantling of debris aprons and plains in Deuteronilus Mensae, Mars: Implications for the record of mid-latitude glaciation

Cold‐based debris‐covered glaciers: Evaluating their potential as climate archives through studies of ground‐penetrating radar and surface morphology

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About