Clay-mineral assemblages in high-resolution Plio-Pleistocene interval at ODP Site 1165, Prydz Bay, Antarctica

Provenance of Pleistocene sediments in the ANDRILL AND-1B drillcore: Clay and heavy mineral data

“…Illite is an abundant clay mineral in the AND-1B Pleistocene sediments as it is in other Pleistocene sedimentary sequences on the Antarctic continental shelf and rise (Lucchi et al, 2002;Junttila et al, 2005;Damiani et al, 2006). The negative correlation between illite and smectite indicates that mixing of sediments from two different source areas occurred: TAM source rocks and MVG source rocks.…”

Clay mineralogy of the ocean sediments from the Wilkes Land margin, east Antarctica: implications on the paleoclimate, provenance and sediment dispersal pattern

“…To understand the coupling between climatic variability and EaIS, various paleoclimatological data have been generated by the researchers from the EaIS. These records include sediments from the continental shelf and basins in Prydz Bay and the Ross Sea (Shipboard Scientific Party 2001;Passchier et al 2003;Macphail and Truswell 2004;Setti et al 2004;Ehrmann et al 2005;Junttila et al 2005;Juntilla and Strand 2006), lakes (Wagner et al 2004;Hultzsch et al 2008), glacial sediments (Srivastava et al 2008) and ice cores (Jouzel et al 1993). Until recently, EaIS is considered as stable and responding slowly to the changes in climate, but the records of Escutia et al (2011) suggest that the ice sheet in eastern sector of Wilkes land margin is less stable and vulnerable to the extreme climatic condition because its base is largely below sea level.…”

“…However, type of minerals and their proportions are controlled by the climatic condition, provenance and oceanographic currents (Diester-Haass et al 1993;Ehrmann 1998a;Junttila et al 2005). Clay mineralogical record of antarctic continental margin has shown that the paleoclimatic variability and weathering processes, i.e., physical versus chemical weathering, are strongly coupled and hence have been used as a proxy to reconstruct the paleoclimatic and glacial history of antarctica (Ehrmann 1998a;Junttila et al 2005;Hultzsch et al 2008;Ehrmann et al 2005). Moreover, it has also been used as proxy for deciphering the provenance and paleoceanography of the antarctic continental margin (Ehrmann 1998b;Yoon et al 2000;Damiani et al 2006).…”

Circum-Antarctic warming events between 4 and 3.5Ma recorded in marine sediments from the Prydz Bay (ODP Leg 188) and the Antarctic Peninsula (ODP Leg 178) margins

“…For example, ODP Leg 188 records obtained from the East Antarctic Prydz Bay continental shelf show evidence of repeated advance and retreat of the Lambert ice stream across the shelf in the Late Miocene and through the early Pliocene (Hambrey et al, 1991;Passchier et al, 2003;O'Brien et al, 2004). Juntilla et al (2005) pointed out that fluctuations of smectite and chlorite within the clay mineral assemblage at Site 1165, on the Prydz Bay continental rise, during the middle Pliocene are consistent with a dynamic behaviour of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS). Diatom assemblages recovered from Prydz Bay ODP sites 1166 and 1165, suggest low sea-ice concentrations through much of the Pliocene (Whitehead et al, 2005).…”