East Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics during the Quaternary inferred from marine sediment records of the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean

The major objective of the project is the reconstruction of late Quaternary East Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics, inferred from sedimentary records that document environmental changes in the glaciomarine realm between the southern Kerguelen Plateau and the Prydz Bay with the outlet of the Lambert Glacier-Amery Ice Shelf system. The latter represents one of the three large ice shelves of Antarctica. It is fed by eight major ice streams, draining a vast glacial catchment area (1.09 million km²), representing about 20% of the EAIS. The idea and scientific conception of the project is to recognize the variability of processes in the proximal and distal marine environment that are linked with ice-sheet dynamics, comprising the input of ice-rafted debris, glacial reworking of shelf sediments to the continental slope, the variability of bottom-water production and outflow under floating ice shelves, as well as changes in biological productivity controlled by marine ice coverage (see block diagram below).


The sample material used for this project has been taken during Polarstern cruise ANT-XXIII/9 to the study area between 2nd February and 11th April 2007 (see photo below). The sedimentary records comprise high-resolution Holocene sections, the time interval of the latest glacial-interglacial cycle during the past 130 kyr, and one long-term record back to the mid-Pliocene. First results suggest a persistent stability of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet through at least the Pleistocene, whereby glacial-interglacial fluctuations in global sea level controlled the extent of shelf-grounded ice sheets. The abundance of ice-rafted debris suggests maximum ice extension during the early Pleistocene and the mid-Pleistocene, supported by finding from terrestrial studies. High-frequent ice-sheet oscillations at sub-Milankovitch time scales, as known from the behaviour of northern-hemispheric ice sheets, are not recognizable in the glaciomarine sediment records. In the Prydz Bay region, the last postglacial ice-sheet retreat was accomplished around 8.8 ka BP with a short readvance during the mid-Holocene.

Scientists

PD Dr. Bernhard Diekmann, AWI Potsdam, Project Leader

Dipl.-Geol. Andreas Borchers, AWI Potsdam, PhD student

Ines Voigt, Potsdam University, Diploma Student

Dr. Thomas Frederichs, Bremen University, Palaeomagnetics

Dr. Hannes Grobe, AWI Bremerhaven, Sedimentology

Dr. Gerhard Kuhn, AWI Bremerhaven, Sedimentology

Dr. Rainer Gersonde, AWI Bremerhaven, Biostratigraphy

Research areas

Prydz Bay to southern Kerguelen Plateau (60-70 degrees southern latitude, 60-85 degrees eastern longitude)

Publications

Related articles

Borchers A, Dietze E, Kuhn G, Esper O, Voigt I, Hartmann K, Diekmann B, (submitted). Holocene ice dynamics, bottom-water formation and polynya activity recorded in Burton Basin, East Antarctica. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology.

Borchers A, Voigt I, Kuhn G, Diekmann B, 2011. Mineralogy of glaciomarine sediments from the Prydz Bay-Kerguelen region: relation to modern depositional environments. Antarctic Science 23, 164-179. doi:10.1017/S0954102010000830

Voigt I, Borchers A, Esper O, Frederichs T, Gersonde R, Kuhn G, Kretschmer S, Mollenhauer G, Diekmann B, 2010. Antarctic bottom-water dynamics in the Indian sector of the Antarctic Ocean over the last 140 000 years. Extended abstract in: International Congress on Deep-Water Circulation: Processes and Products. Baiona, Pontevedra, Spain, June 16-18, 2010, Baiona, Pontevedra, Spain.

Diekmann B, Bardenhagen J, Borchers A, Daniel K, Eulenburg A, de la Rocha C, Grobe H, Kopsch C, Kretschmer S, Lensch N, Sperlich P, Voigt I, 2008. Marine Geology in the Prydz Bay – Kerguelen Plateau Area. In: Hubberten HW (ed): The Expedition of the Research Vessel „Polarstern“ to the Antarctic in 2007 (ANT-XXIII/9). Reports on Polar and Marine Research, 583: 37-53.

Diekmann B, 2007. Sedimentary patterns in the late Quaternary Southern Ocean, Deep-Sea Research II, 54, 2350-2366.

Barker PF, Diekmann B, Escutia C, 2007. Onset of Cenozoic Antarctic glaciation. Deep-Sea Research II 54, 2293-2307.


PhD and Doctoral theses

Borchers A, 2011. Glaciomarine Sedimentation at the Continental Margin of Prydz Bay, East Antarctica: Implications on Palaeoenvironmental Changes during the Quaternary. PhD Thesis, Universität Potsdam.

Bunke D, 2011. Late Quaternary glacialmarine depositional environment on the Kerguelen Plateau in the Southern Ocean. Diploma Thesis, Universität Potsdam.

Hockun K, 2010. Late Cenozoic glacialmarine depositional environment in the Enderby Basin of the Southern Ocean. Diploma Thesis, Universität Potsdam.

Voigt I, 2009. Spätquartäre Bodenwasserdynamik im Antarktischen Ozean südöstlich des Kerguelen-Plateaus. Diploma Thesis, Universität Potsdam.


Conference contributions

Borchers et al., 2008. Glaciomarine sediment records of late Quaternary ice-rafting and bottom-water activity at the MacRobertson-Prydz Bay continental margin, East Antarctica. Talk on 23. Internationale Polartagung, Münster.

Borchers et al., 2008. Pleistocene to Holocene glaciomarine environments in the Prydz Bay region and its implications for East Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics and Antarctic Bottom Water production. Submitted Poster at AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco.

Diekmann et al., 2008. Marine sediment records of East Antarctic Ice-Sheet dynamics during the Quaternary. Poster on SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference, St. Petersburg.

Outreach

Geheimnisse der Antarktis – Expedition ins Unbekannte. Fernsehbericht und Interview mit B. Diekmann über das meeresgeologische Forschungsprogramm auf Expedition ANT-XXIII/9 im RBB-Wissenschaftsmagazin “Ozon”, 28.03.2007.

With Polarstern in the Antarctic: Field Work for the Bipolar Climate Machinery, the IPY Project BIPOMAC. Euroscience Open Forum 2008, Barcelona, Popular Talk in the Session: Research and Outreach Cooperation during the International Polar Year.

Homepage

AWI-Homepage

Research funding organisation

German Research Foundation

Project numbers: DI 655/3
Funding period: January 2007 – December 2009