Antarctic environmental change and ice sheet evolution through the Miocene to Pliocene – a perspective from the Ross Sea and George V to Wilkes Land Coasts

Levy, R. H.; Dolan, Aisling M.; Escutia, Carlota; Gasson, Edward; McKay, Robert; Naish, T.; Patterson, Molly O.; Pérez, Lara F.; Shevenell, A.; Flierdt, Tina van de; Dickinson, Warren W.; Kowalewski, D. E.; Meyers, Stephen R.; Ohneiser, Christian; Sangiorgi, Francesca; Williams, T.; Chorley, Hannah; Santis, Laura De; Florindo, Fabio; Golledge, Nicholas R.; Grant, Georgia; Halberstadt, Anna Ruth W.; Harwood, David M.; Lewis, Adam R.; Powell, Ross D.; Verret, Marjolaine

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-819109-5.00014-1

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 513 publications

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“…The positions of sedimentary deposits rich in volcanic detritus possibly derived from eruptions at Mason Spur (i.e., AND-2A Geochemical Unit 4 and AND-1B Lithostratigraphical Unit 6) are also shown; see text for details). The erosional hiatuses indicated represent regional seismic unconformities encountered in Ross Sea drill cores, interpreted as periods of multiple ice advances and retreats (Levy et al 2021) ▸ analyzed was shown to have a peralkaline trachyte composition. The abundance of volcanic clasts increases markedly above 225 mbsf, with a prominent peak between 182 and 174 mbsf, and continues up to 30 mbsf.…”

Section: Evolution Of the Mason Spur Volcanic Complexmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…For example, a retreating ice body less than a kilometre thick may depressurize shallow magma systems, whilst larger ice masses may even influence melt generation down to mantle depths (Gudmundsson 1986;Sigmundsson et al 2010). A potential contributing factor triggering the eruption of MSP1 at Mason Spur might thus be significant fluctuations in ice thickness during and immediately following the Middle Miocene Climate Transition, a period of significant climate instability (Halberstadt et al 2021;Levy et al 2021).…”

Section: What Caused the Longevity Of Volcanism At Mason Spur?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ice movement would carry the tephras to the ice margins and dump the deposits into the sea, thus leaving little or no terrestrial record. Given the history of prolonged glacials in Antarctica (Halberstadt et al 2021;Levy et al 2021), this seems the most likely explanation for the scarcity of pyroclastic rocks generally within the WARS.…”

Section: Comparison Of Mason Spur With Other Volcanoes In the West An...mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 95%

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Eruptive history of Mason Spur, a Miocene—Pleistocene polygenetic volcanic complex in southern Victoria Land, West Antarctic Rift System, Antarctica

et al. 2022

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Mason Spur is a deeply eroded Middle Miocene to Pleistocene (c. 13 to 0.37 Ma) volcanic complex in southern Victoria Land, within the West Antarctic Rift System (WARS). The oldest rocks include a large volume of trachyte ignimbrites that provided abundant volcanic detritus recovered in McMurdo Sound drill cores. The ignimbrites together with early-formed intrusions were strongly deformed during a substantial caldera collapse at c. 13 Ma. Intense erosion modified the volcanic landscape, creating a paleo-relief of several hundred metres. Deep ravines were cut and filled by deposits of multiple lahars probably linked to gravitational collapses of trachyte dome(s). Small-volume trachytic magmas were also erupted, forming lavas and at least one tuff cone. The youngest trachytic activity comprises a lava dome and related block-and-ash-flow deposits, erupted at 6 Ma. Basanite erupted throughout the history of the complex and eruptions younger than 12 Ma are almost exclusively basanite, forming scoria cones, water-cooled lavas, and tuff cones. Three peripheral outcrops are composed of basanitic ‘a‘ā lava-fed deltas, probably erupted from vents on neighbouring volcanoes at Mount Discovery and Mount Morning. Abundant ignimbrite deposits at Mason Spur differentiate this volcanic complex from others in the WARS. Eruptions were triggered by rift extension initially, yielding the voluminous trachytes sourced from a magma chamber on the margin of the WARS. Later mafic eruptions were associated with deep crustal faults related to residual intraplate deformation. These results add important details to the eruptive history of the intracontinental WARS.

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Section: Evolution Of the Mason Spur Volcanic Complexmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: What Caused the Longevity Of Volcanism At Mason Spur?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Comparison Of Mason Spur With Other Volcanoes In the West An...mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 95%

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Eruptive history of Mason Spur, a Miocene—Pleistocene polygenetic volcanic complex in southern Victoria Land, West Antarctic Rift System, Antarctica

et al. 2022

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“…Uplift of the TAM occurred in several phases after initiating at ~115Ma, with the last major tectonic driven uplift phase thought to have occurred between the Early Eocene and the Early Oligocene (Fitzgerald, 1994). Isostatic uplift resulting from ongoing thermal subsidence in the Ross Sea and extensive erosion in the TAM trunk valleys may have resulted in further uplift into Neogene times (Fielding et al, 2008;Levy et al, 2022;Stern et al, 2005). This uplift and subsequent erosion is thought to have contributed to most of the basin fill in the western Ross Sea, with varying rates during the different uplift phases (Fielding et al, 2008), and accelerated deposition occurred during periods of enhanced glaciation (Marschalek et al, 2021).…”

Section: Site Dsdp273mentioning

confidence: 99%

Antarctic paleoenvironment and vegetation reconstruction during the early and middle Miocene using biomarkers from Ross Sea sediment drill cores

Lelieveld¹

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The Ross Sea during the Early to Middle Miocene was influenced by Antarctic Ice Sheets that were highly variable and potentially contributed to 60 m of sea level variations. This variability is proposed to be regulated by shifts in orbital configurations that influenced atmospheric, oceanic temperatures and circulation patterns, that in turn regulated shifts in atmospheric CO2 levels and ocean heat delivery to the Antarctic region, causing ice sheet loss or advance. The vegetation response to these Miocene changes is also proposed to highly variable, with advancing ice sheets restricting the real extent and elevation of land where higher order plants can grow. This thesis reinvestigates two Deep Sea Drilling Project cores from DSDP sites 272 and 273, which are located in the middle to outer continental shelf of the central Ross Sea, Antarctica, and capture a record of organic remains from inland vegetation that has been transported offshore by glaciers or meltwater outwash. Recent records from International Ocean Discovery Programme Site (IODP) U1521 and ANDRILL site AND-2A has provided records of Early Miocene to Middle Miocene. New age models from the DSDP Site 272 and 273 cores suggest they provide records that compliment these newer cores and fill in key time gaps for the Miocene time period, in particular leading into, and during the Miocene Climate Optimum, a period of notable global warmth between 17 and 14.6 Ma. This thesis presents biomarker and XRF datasets from DSDP Site 272 and 273 in the Ross Sea region, as well as a redescription of the lithological descriptions and to align with more recent lithological frameworks used for IODP site U1521. To construct this new description, XRF data and grain size data was used to define 4 main units in both cores. Only short “snapshot” intervals of the MCO were recorded in DSDP Site 272, between ~15.8 and 15.3 Ma, but contains an offshore hemipelagic signal thorough this time periods, as well as prior to the MCO (between 17-18 Ma). A longer record of the MCO is present in DSDP Site 273, but this core also records the transition into the MCO, while DSDP Site 273 captures a records of the Mid-Miocene climate transition (MMCT). Biomarker data showed an unexpected resulted, whereby vegetation diversity, or average chain length (ACL) does not increase, despite a warming signal in the carbon preference index (CPI) and other proxies during the mid-Miocene climate optimum compared to earlier times. Two hypotheses are proposed for this: 1) there was an extinction of higher order plants during a previously document glacial advance of West and East Antarctic Ice sheets between 17.8-17.4 Ma; or 2) this same advance is also known to have resulted in major erosion of low-lying land in West Antarctica to below sea level, leaving larger mountain ranges to dominate the terrestrial setting in Antarctica after that time. This resulted in reduced habitat available for higher order plants at low-elevation environments of the Ross Sea during the MCO, and thus higher elevation, shrub and tundra dominated the vegetation during the MCO, despite the warm climate state.

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Cenozoic history of Antarctic glaciation and climate from onshore and offshore studies

McKay

Escutia

Santis

et al. 2022

Antarctic Climate Evolution

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Antarctic environmental change and ice sheet evolution through the Miocene to Pliocene – a perspective from the Ross Sea and George V to Wilkes Land Coasts

Cited by 10 publications

References 513 publications

Eruptive history of Mason Spur, a Miocene—Pleistocene polygenetic volcanic complex in southern Victoria Land, West Antarctic Rift System, Antarctica

Eruptive history of Mason Spur, a Miocene—Pleistocene polygenetic volcanic complex in southern Victoria Land, West Antarctic Rift System, Antarctica

Antarctic paleoenvironment and vegetation reconstruction during the early and middle Miocene using biomarkers from Ross Sea sediment drill cores

Cenozoic history of Antarctic glaciation and climate from onshore and offshore studies

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