The marine record of deglaciation of the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica since the Last Glacial Maximum

Relative Paleoenvironmental Adjustments Following Deglaciation of the Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, Antarctica)

“…In coastal environments at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP), the glacial retreat following the Last Glacial Maximum continued throughout the Holocene, exposing new ice-free surfaces (Ingólfsson et al, 2003;Seong et al, 2009;Simms et al, 2011; A B S T R A C T In the present context of fast warming in the Antarctic Peninsula (AP), understanding past and recent environmental dynamics is crucial to better assess future environmental responses in this region. Very detailed geomorphological maps can help to interpret the interaction between glacial, periglacial, and paraglacial systems.…”

New geological interpretation of multi-channel seismic profiles from the Pacific Margin of the Antarctic Peninsula

“…The reach of the Antarctic ice sheet during LGM (max 15.000 ya) did not change during a long period of time, from 20 to 10 thousands of years (Michalchuk et al 2009), in NE direction (Elephant Island), reaching 50 km from KGI. The primer line was around present isobath of 400 m. The deep part of the Bransfield Through was at that time free from ice (Simms et al 2011;Davies et al 2012). This extent of the LGM ice sheet let us assume that younger marine--glacial sediments on the continental slope of KGI are related to this phase of glaciations.…”

“…The deepest borehole was the 108.2 m deep SHALDRIL core (Simms et al 2011) located in the middle of the main entrance to the Maxwell Bay from Bransfield Strait, which gives information only for very shallow water sediments (mostly glacial-marine). Ocean Drilling Program made some drills near the Antarctic Peninsula (Barker et al 1999), however, they are few hundred kilometers away from the South Shetland Islands, south to the Hero Fracture Zone, where no traces of subduction zone are visible.…”

Seafloor geomorphology of western Antarctic Peninsula bays: a signature of ice flow behaviour

“…The predominant rock types are metamorphic and intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks (Griffith and Anderson, 1989). ice thickness ranges between 400 and 800 m (Fretwell et al, 2013) and averages about 500 m. The ice cap covering Anvers Island reaches up to 600 m, similar to the western AP (Ashley and Smith, 2000), while in KGI, the ice cap is only 150-200 m thick (Simms et al, 2011). The high peaks of the AP form a topographic barrier to the westerly winds resulting in a warmer, wetter western AP, and a cooler, dryer eastern AP .…”

“…As the ice retreats, it leaves behind glacial geomorphic features on the seafloor; these submarine landforms have been mapped in glaciated environments in Antarctica Wellner et al, 2001Wellner et al, , 2006Evans et al, 2004;Heroy and Anderson, 2005;Larter et al, 2009;Livingstone et al, 2013;Hodgson et al, 2014), southern Chile (Dowdeswell and Vasquez, 2013), North America , and northern Europe (Ottesen et al, 2005;Dowdeswell, 2006, 2009;Dowdeswell et al, 2010), giving insight into the glacial history of each region. Several seafloor features have been mapped west of the AP on the continental slope and continental shelf Graham and Smith, 2012;Gales et al, 2013), the South Shetland Islands (Milliken et al, 2009;Simms et al, 2011), South Georgia Island Graham et al, 2017), Bransfield Strait (Canals et al, 2000(Canals et al, , 2002, Gerlache Strait , south of Anvers Island (Domack et al, 2006), and Marguerite Bay (Ó Cofaigh et al, 2002;Anderson and Fretwell, 2008;Livingstone et al, 2013). However, the seafloor geomorphology in western AP bays has not been described in detail, except for a few locations (Garcia et al, 2016;Munoz and Wellner, 2016;Wölfl et al, 2016).…”