DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm 1158 "Antarktisforschung"

Rapid Paleoenvironmental Changes in the McMurdo Sound Region Recorded in Sediments:
High-Resolution XRF-Scanning, ICP-MS analysis and physical-properties logging at ANDRILL Site MIS

At ANDRILL site SMS (Southern McMurdo Sound) an longer than 1000m sediment core will be drilled from a sea-ice platform covering Early/Middle Miocene (~17 Ma) to Pleistocene strata of McMurdo Sound, Ross Sea, Antarctica. The target sediments were deposited on the western flank of the Victoria Land Basin (VLB), a structural half-graben that forms part of the West Antarctic Rift system, and experienced subsidence since late Eocene times.

On this sediment core we propose to combine high-resolution on-ice measurement of chemical element concentrations using XRF core-scanner with off-ice high-precision chemical and sedimentological analysis on bulk samples (XRF, XRD, ICP-MS, biogenic components) and individual lithoclasts (LA-ICP-MS, electron microprobe, microscopy). The resulting multiple dataset will provide detailed information on sediment composition and, thus, contribute to several scientific objectives of ANDRILL such as the history of Ross/West Antarctic ice shelf expansion and retreat since ~17 million years, sea-ice presence/absence in the McMurdo region, and the history of Neogene sediment provenance and accumulation rates in the VLB.

Our major goal is to improve our understanding of the Neogene paleoenvironmental evolution of Antarctica with a special focus on the Mid-Miocene climatic optimum (~17-15 Ma) and the subsequent onset of major cooling (~14 Ma) along with the key question on the stability of cold-polar climate conditions during the last 14 million years.

Scientists

Dr. Gerhard Kuhn
Alfred-Wegener-Institute Bremerhaven

Prof. Hilmar von Eynatten
GZG - Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum der Universität Göttingen

Dr. Frank Niessen
Alfred-Wegener-Institute Bremerhaven

Research areas

McMurdo Sound, 78°S 166°E

Publications

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