Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Earth Sciences

PDF

Antarctica

Institution
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 1 - 30 of 92

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Accuracy Investigation Of Gnss-Reflectometry For Sea Level Monitoring On Horseshoe Island, Antarctica: Preliminary Results Of The Turkish Permanent Gnss Station (Tur1), Mahmut Oğuz Selbesoğlu, Hasan Hakan Yavaşoğlu, Mustafa Fahri̇ Karabulut, Özgün Oktar, Vahap Engi̇n Gülal, Hi̇mmet Karaman, Mustafa Ersel Kamaşak Nov 2023

Accuracy Investigation Of Gnss-Reflectometry For Sea Level Monitoring On Horseshoe Island, Antarctica: Preliminary Results Of The Turkish Permanent Gnss Station (Tur1), Mahmut Oğuz Selbesoğlu, Hasan Hakan Yavaşoğlu, Mustafa Fahri̇ Karabulut, Özgün Oktar, Vahap Engi̇n Gülal, Hi̇mmet Karaman, Mustafa Ersel Kamaşak

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Antarctica is called a natural laboratory and is highly important for investigating climate change and its evolution over time. Sustainability is a critical concern due to the challenges posed by glacier melting and rising sea levels due to global warming. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, since the industrial age, the global mean sea level has risen by about 20 cm as a result of the increase in the average world temperature by 1 °C. Therefore, long-term observations by satellite-based techniques in and around Antarctica are of great importance for monitoring the impacts of climate change. In the …


Applicability Of Real-Time Ppp Technique In Polar Regions As An Accurate And Efficient Real-Time Positioning System, Reha Meti̇n Alkan, Serdar Erol, Bi̇lal Mutlu Nov 2023

Applicability Of Real-Time Ppp Technique In Polar Regions As An Accurate And Efficient Real-Time Positioning System, Reha Meti̇n Alkan, Serdar Erol, Bi̇lal Mutlu

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The polar regions, which include the Arctic and Antarctic areas, attract the attention of people every day, and issues that are closely related to the future of humanity make these regions even more important. Accurate and reliable positioning in polar regions is very critical for scientific research projects and also for commercial, touristic, and other human activities. In this study, the usability and the accuracy performance of the real-time precise point positioning (RT-PPP) technique in high-latitude polar regions with harsh environmental and extreme atmospheric conditions were investigated. Within that framework, the GNSS dataset of six IGS multi-GNSS stations located at …


The Petrogenesis Of Analcime In The Coppermine Formation On Robert Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, Rai̇f Kandemi̇r, Yilmaz Demi̇r, Cüneyt Şen, Ufuk Celal Yağcioğlu Nov 2023

The Petrogenesis Of Analcime In The Coppermine Formation On Robert Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, Rai̇f Kandemi̇r, Yilmaz Demi̇r, Cüneyt Şen, Ufuk Celal Yağcioğlu

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The South Shetland Islands were shaped by island arc volcanism that occurred from the Jurassic to the Quaternary. Robert Island is located in the center of this archipelago, and Coppermine Peninsula, located on the southwestern part of Robert Island, exposures significant rock outcrops of basalts and andesitic-basaltic agglomerates of the Coppermine Formation. The investigated samples were collected during Turkish Antarctic Expedition 2 (TAE-II), in March-April 2018, from the area northeast of Triplet Hill. The volcanic rocks exhibited an amygdaloidal microlithic-porphyritic texture. Subhedral to anhedral phenocrysts of labradorite, augite, and olivine were observed with holocrystalline groundmass composed of plagioclase, pyroxene, and …


Webgis-Based Data Center Design For Polar Science Studies: Simulation Of Türkiye, Müge Şenel, Hasan Hakan Yavaşoğlu, Burcu Özsoy, Hi̇mmet Karaman, Mustafa Ümi̇t Gümüşay Nov 2023

Webgis-Based Data Center Design For Polar Science Studies: Simulation Of Türkiye, Müge Şenel, Hasan Hakan Yavaşoğlu, Burcu Özsoy, Hi̇mmet Karaman, Mustafa Ümi̇t Gümüşay

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Scientific studies concentrated in Antarctica hold great value and importance for humanity. Research projects are conducted in various disciplines on the continent, where nearly 100 research stations from 30 countries are established. Despite the challenges posed by Antarctica's natural structure, unique environment, difficult working conditions, and limited logistics opportunities, scientific research conducted there is indispensable due to the valuable information it offers. In pursuit of accessing this information, Turkish Antarctic expeditions have been organized since 2017. In this study, a polar data center was established through a web-based geographic information system (WebGIS), a significant infrastructure for the continuity of scientific …


Accuracy Assessment Of Glacier Depth Monitoring Based On Uav-Gpr On Horseshoe Island, Antarctica, Mahmut Oğuz Selbesoğlu, Mustafa Fahri̇ Karabulut, Özgün Oktar, Burak Akpinar, Oleg Vassilev, Mehmet Arkali, Şeyma Nur Tufan, Alptuğ Şeref Ayyildiz, Esra Günaydin, Ati̇lla Yilmaz, Doğaç Baybars Işiler, Burcu Özsoy Nov 2023

Accuracy Assessment Of Glacier Depth Monitoring Based On Uav-Gpr On Horseshoe Island, Antarctica, Mahmut Oğuz Selbesoğlu, Mustafa Fahri̇ Karabulut, Özgün Oktar, Burak Akpinar, Oleg Vassilev, Mehmet Arkali, Şeyma Nur Tufan, Alptuğ Şeref Ayyildiz, Esra Günaydin, Ati̇lla Yilmaz, Doğaç Baybars Işiler, Burcu Özsoy

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

Unmanned aerial systems have a wide range of uses in studying the impacts of climate change over several fields. Recently, its combination with a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technology has been demonstrated to be highly effective for surveying glaciers, especially in difficult and inaccessible terrains like Antarctica. In this context, this study focused on exploring the potential of using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-GPR to measure the depth of glaciers on Horseshoe Island, West Antarctica. The data were collected during the seventh Turkish Antarctic Expedition (TAE-VII) in February and March 2023, within the scope of the international project titled "Glacier monitoring …


Paleotemperature Estimates From Diatom Morphometrics In The Amundsen Sea For Marine Isotope Stage 5, Cesar Lopez May 2023

Paleotemperature Estimates From Diatom Morphometrics In The Amundsen Sea For Marine Isotope Stage 5, Cesar Lopez

Honors Capstones

Because of ever rising temperatures driven by anthropogenic climate change, much attention has been given to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) by the scientific community. This is due to its sensitivity to global climate change and vulnerability for collapse as evidenced by Pleistocene interglacial events. Paleotemperature estimates from the Amundsen Sea are crucial for understanding how global temperature changes impacted WAIS throughout the Pleistocene. Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5) is of particular interest as it contains different substages and intervals of fluctuating temperatures. This period also is estimated to have had temperatures equal to, or slightly higher than …


Snow Distribution And Influence In Taylor Valley, Antarctica, Using Remote Sensing, Katherine Mcnulty, Peter Doran, Mark Salvatore, Suniti Karunatillake Apr 2023

Snow Distribution And Influence In Taylor Valley, Antarctica, Using Remote Sensing, Katherine Mcnulty, Peter Doran, Mark Salvatore, Suniti Karunatillake

LSU Master's Theses

The McMurdo Dry Valleys is the largest ice-free area in Antarctica, but seasonal snow covers the valley floors sporadically throughout the year. In this study, a model to estimate areal snow coverage from satellite imagery was created. An area-volume model was created to estimate the amount of snow water equivalent (SWE) from the snow area extracted from the imagery. Snow cover influences the total albedo, the hydrologic budget, and the soil moisture and soil temperature in Taylor Valley (TV). Quantifying snow precipitation in TV is challenging because snow redistributes with winds, sublimates, or melts within a short period. Previous estimates …


Dataset: A Numerical Simulation Of The Ocean, Sea Ice And Ice Shelves In The Amundsen Sea (Antarctica) Over The Period 2006-2022 And Its Associated Code And Input Files, Pierre St-Laurent Jan 2023

Dataset: A Numerical Simulation Of The Ocean, Sea Ice And Ice Shelves In The Amundsen Sea (Antarctica) Over The Period 2006-2022 And Its Associated Code And Input Files, Pierre St-Laurent

Data

A three-dimensional numerical model of the Amundsen Sea (Antarctica) was used to simulate the period Jan.2006-Mar.2022 under consistent atmospheric/oceanic forcings, bathymetry/ice shelf topography, and model equations/parameters. The model is an implementation of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS, https://www.myroms.org/) with extensions for sea ice (Budgell 2005) and ice shelves (Dinniman et al. 2011). It simulates the ocean hydrography and circulation, sea ice thermodynamics and dynamics, and the basal melt of the ice shelves, with a uniform horizontal mesh of 1.5km and 20 topography-following vertical levels. Forcings include the ERA5 reanalysis (3-hourly), 10 tidal constituents from CATS 2008, and ocean/sea ice …


On The Relative Importance Of Offshelf/Onshelf Drivers Of Variability In Mcdw Inventory On The Amundsen Shelf, Antarctica, Pierre St-Laurent, S. E. Stammerjohn, T. Maksym, R. M. Sherrell Dec 2022

On The Relative Importance Of Offshelf/Onshelf Drivers Of Variability In Mcdw Inventory On The Amundsen Shelf, Antarctica, Pierre St-Laurent, S. E. Stammerjohn, T. Maksym, R. M. Sherrell

Presentations

Ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea (west Antarctica) are melting rapidly and may raise global sea levels substantially over the coming century through reduced buttressing. The high basal melt rates are associated with the presence of warm modified Circumpolar Deep Water (mCDW) that intrudes across the continental shelf and melts the floating portion of the ice sheet from its base near the grounding zone. How much mCDW is present on the continental shelf (its volume inventory) is thus thought to be a key proxy for the year-to-year variability in ice shelf melt rates. Over the past decade, the literature has …


Glaciochemical Investigations In Three Southern Hemisphere Mountain Sites, Mariusz Potocki Aug 2022

Glaciochemical Investigations In Three Southern Hemisphere Mountain Sites, Mariusz Potocki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research presented in this dissertation focuses on glaciochemical records of trace elements, major ions, and stable water isotopes from three mountain regions: the Antarctic Peninsula, the Central Chilean Andes, and South Georgia Island.

The first section reports a significant increase in U concentration over 27 years on Detroit Plateau, Antarctic Peninsula. U concentrations in the ice core increase by as much as 102 between the 1980s and 2000s, accompanied by increased variability in recent years. The U concentration increase coincides with expanded open pit mining in the Southern Hemisphere, most notably Australia. Since other land-source dust elements do not …


Antarctic Ice Sheet Stability During Warm Periods: Integrating Numerical Modeling With Geologic Data, Anna Ruth W. Halberstadt Jun 2022

Antarctic Ice Sheet Stability During Warm Periods: Integrating Numerical Modeling With Geologic Data, Anna Ruth W. Halberstadt

Doctoral Dissertations

Sea level rise is one of the major social and environmental challenges that threatens modern civilization, yet the response of polar ice sheets to future warming is deeply uncertain. Mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is projected to dominate global sea level rise in the near future, but how much, and when, remains a key unknown. The challenges associated with projecting Antarctica’s future sea level contribution are derived from a knowledge gap of physical ice sheet processes in a world warmer than today, and a lack of understanding of climatic thresholds that drive potentially irreversible retreat. Future and even …


Reconstructing The Ecological Relationships Of Late Cretaceous Antarctic Dinosaurs And How Functional Tooth Morphology Influenced These Relationships, Ian D. Broxson May 2022

Reconstructing The Ecological Relationships Of Late Cretaceous Antarctic Dinosaurs And How Functional Tooth Morphology Influenced These Relationships, Ian D. Broxson

2022 Symposium

The Sandwich Bluff Formation of the James Ross Basin of Antarctica has recently yielded a group of five late Cretaceous dinosaurs that lived contemporaneously with each other, a first for Antarctica. These five dinosaurs include fragmentary remains of two differently sized elasmarian ornithopods, a possible megaraptor, a hadrosaur, and a nodosaur. In this study we will construct a model of the ecological relationships of late Cretaceous Antarctica. Additionally, we will look at what specific factors allowed this group of four herbivores and a carnivore to coexist in a restricted locality and what niches were filled by each species. Methods to …


Microfabric Analysis Of Mid-Pliocene Amundsen Sea Interglacial Sediments Demonstrates A Link Between Iceberg Melt And Diatom Productivity (Iodp Exp. 379), Heather Leanne Furlong Jan 2022

Microfabric Analysis Of Mid-Pliocene Amundsen Sea Interglacial Sediments Demonstrates A Link Between Iceberg Melt And Diatom Productivity (Iodp Exp. 379), Heather Leanne Furlong

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Anthropogenically induced climate change in the polar regions has rapidly become an emergent global issue, especially for low-lying coastal communities, which are most affected by sea-level rise. The future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is of significant concern due to its history of instability and retreat, especially in light of the observed ongoing changes. Establishing rates of retreat is critical to forecasting future behavior of the WAIS, and previous studies have been unable to establish rates of ice sheet collapse in part because Antarctic continental shelf records are impacted by erosional hiatuses. In 2019, International Ocean Discovery Program …


Causes And Characteristics Of Electrical Resistivity Variability In Shallow (<4 M) Soils In Taylor Valley, East Antarctica, William S. Gutterman Jul 2021

Causes And Characteristics Of Electrical Resistivity Variability In Shallow (<4 M) Soils In Taylor Valley, East Antarctica, William S. Gutterman

LSU Master's Theses

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the largest ice-free region in Antarctica and are characterized as a polar desert environment. Soils in the region are typically very dry (<1% soil water by weight) and remain frozen for most of the year. Increases in air temperature and incoming solar radiation during the austral summer generate meltwater from glaciers, ground ice, and snow patches supplying moisture to soils and altering the physical and chemical makeup of the subsurface. Previous studies have utilized airborne electromagnetic surveys (AEM) to analyze groundwater systems in the deep subsurface but have not yet examined soil moisture in the shallow (<4 m) subsurface. Here, I used electrical resistivity data from two AEM surveys (2011 and 2018) and soil geochemical data from three transects to characterize the spatial heterogeneity of soil properties in the near-subsurface of lower Taylor Valley. Soil resistivities from 2011 and 2018 range from 33.2 Ωm to 3535 Ωm with low elevations of <100 meters above sea level (masl) typically displaying the lowest resistivities and high elevations displaying greater resistivities. Liquid brine fractions were empirically estimated from electrical resistivity values using Archie’s Law and range from 0.3% to 68.2% for soils with resistivities <200 Ωm. Additionally, soil transect data show greater percentages of fine-grained sediments (<63 µm) exist at elevations <100 masl where soil resistivities begin decreasing. Resistivity variability in the subsurface is ultimately controlled by the site history, local and regional climate, soil salinity, soil moisture, soil lithology.


Seismicity And Pn Velocity Structure Of Central West Antarctica, Erica M. Lucas, Andrew A. Nyblade, Andrew J. Lloyd, Richard C. Aster, Douglas A. Wiens, John Paul O'Donnell, Graham W. Stuart, Terry J. Wilson, Ian W. D. Dalziel, J. Paul Winberry, Audrey D. Huerta Jan 2021

Seismicity And Pn Velocity Structure Of Central West Antarctica, Erica M. Lucas, Andrew A. Nyblade, Andrew J. Lloyd, Richard C. Aster, Douglas A. Wiens, John Paul O'Donnell, Graham W. Stuart, Terry J. Wilson, Ian W. D. Dalziel, J. Paul Winberry, Audrey D. Huerta

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

We have located 117 previously undetected seismic events mainly occurring between 2015 and 2017 that originated from glacial, tectonic, and volcanic processes in central West Antarctica using data recorded on Polar Earth Observing Network (POLENET/ANET) and UK Antarctic Network (UKANET) seismic stations. The seismic events, with local magnitudes (ML) ranging from 1.1 to 3.5, are predominantly clustered in four geographic regions; the Ellsworth Mountains, Thwaites Glacier, Pine Island Glacier, and Mount Takahe. Eighteen of the events are in the Ellsworth Mountains and can be attributed to a mixture of glacial and tectonic processes. The largest event noted …


Characterizing The Geomagnetic Field At High Southern Latitudes: Evidence From The Antarctic Peninsula, Joseph Biasi, Joseph Kirschvink, Roger Fu Jan 2021

Characterizing The Geomagnetic Field At High Southern Latitudes: Evidence From The Antarctic Peninsula, Joseph Biasi, Joseph Kirschvink, Roger Fu

Other Staff Materials

Due to a dearth of data from high-latitude paleomagnetic sites, it is not currently clear if the geocentric axial dipole (GAD) hypothesis accurately describes the long-term behavior of the geomagnetic field at high latitudes. Here we present new paleomagnetic and paleointensity data from the James Ross Island (JRI) volcanic group, located on the Antarctic Peninsula. This data set addresses a notable lack of data from the 60°–70°S latitude bin and includes 251 samples from 31 sites, spanning 0.99–6.8 Ma in age. We also include positive fold, conglomerate, and baked contact tests. Paleointensity data from three methods (Thellier- Thellier, pseudo-Thellier, and …


Miocene-Pleistocene Diatom Oxygen Isotope And Biogenic Silica Record From Iodp Site U1523, Ross Sea, Antarctica, Donald James Mclennan Jan 2021

Miocene-Pleistocene Diatom Oxygen Isotope And Biogenic Silica Record From Iodp Site U1523, Ross Sea, Antarctica, Donald James Mclennan

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) plays a significant role in Earth’s climate. WAIS is currently retreating due to changes in wind-driven oceanic currents resulting in an increasing flux of warm waters to ice margins. Brine rejection in the Ross Sea is also major source of High Salinity Shelf water (HSSW) and Antarctica Bottom Waters (AABW), which creates a stratified ocean and plays a significant role in regulating Earth’s climate. Currently, there are very limited proxies that can quantify the variable input of HSSW formation on geologic time scales. Here we provide a 18Odiatom and biogenic silica (BSi) record which …


Power Scaling Of Ice Floe Sizes In The Weddell Sea, Southern Ocean, Tristan J. Coffey Jan 2021

Power Scaling Of Ice Floe Sizes In The Weddell Sea, Southern Ocean, Tristan J. Coffey

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The cumulative number versus floe area distribution of seasonal ice floes from four satellite images covering the Summer season (November - February) in the Weddell Sea Antarctica during the summer breakup and melting is fit by two scale-invariant power scaling regimes for the floe areas ranging from 7 to 20 x 108 m2. Scaling exponents, β, for larger floe areas range from -1.5 to -1.7 with an average of -1.6 for floe areas ranging from 6 x 106 to 55 x 107 m2. Scaling exponents, β, for smaller floe areas range from -0.8 to -0.9 with an average of -0.85 …


Plio-Pleistocene Paleoceonography Of The Ross Sea, Antarctica Based On Foraminifera From Iodp Sites U1523, U1522, And U1521, Julia Seidenstein Jul 2020

Plio-Pleistocene Paleoceonography Of The Ross Sea, Antarctica Based On Foraminifera From Iodp Sites U1523, U1522, And U1521, Julia Seidenstein

Masters Theses

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is currently thinning and retreating because shifting oceanic currents are transporting warmer waters to the ice margin, which could lead to a collapse of the ice sheet and global sea level rise. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 374 sailed to the Ross Sea in 2018 to study the history of the WAIS over the last 20 million years. Previous geologic drilling projects into Ross Sea sediments that record the history of the WAIS (DSDP Leg 28, RISP, MSSTS, Cape Roberts Drilling Project, ANDRILL), as well as modeling studies, show considerable variability of ice-sheet …


Refractory Black Carbon (Rbc) Variability In A 47-Year West Antarctic Snow And Firn Core, Marquetto Luciano, Susan Kaspari, Jefferson Cardia Simões May 2020

Refractory Black Carbon (Rbc) Variability In A 47-Year West Antarctic Snow And Firn Core, Marquetto Luciano, Susan Kaspari, Jefferson Cardia Simões

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Black carbon (BC) is an important climate-forcing agent that affects snow albedo. In this work, we present a record of refractory black carbon (rBC) variability, measured from a 20m deep snow and firn core drilled in West Antarctica (79°55’34.600” S, 94°21’13.3”W, 2122m above sea level) during the 2014–2015 austral summer. This is the highest elevation rBC record from West Antarctica. The core was analyzed using the Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) coupled to a CETAC Marin-5 nebulizer. Results show a well-defined seasonality with geometric mean concentrations of 0.015 μg L-1 for the wet season (austral summer–fall) and 0.057 μg …


Model-Based Estimates Of The Timing Of Brine Flux Into The Victoria Land Basin From The Mcmurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, Valerie Nicole Voisin Jan 2020

Model-Based Estimates Of The Timing Of Brine Flux Into The Victoria Land Basin From The Mcmurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, Valerie Nicole Voisin

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) at a continental scale is one of the least constrained components of the hydrologic cycle and may represent a significant flux of iron and silica waters to the global ocean. Quantifying SGD along the Antarctic margin is complicated by complex subglacial and subsurface hydrogeology and limited observational data. Airborne transient electromagnetic (AEM) surveys have identified extensive high-salinity subsurface brines in the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) that are hydrologically connected to surface features in the MDV (e.g. Taylor Glacier, saline lakes) and are potentially a significant source of SGD to McMurdo Sound. A 2D numerical model was …


Estimating Carbon Flux From Optically Recording Total Particle Volume At Depths Below The Primary Pycnocline, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Robert B. Dunbar, Dennis A. Hansell, Gerhard J. Herndl Dec 2019

Estimating Carbon Flux From Optically Recording Total Particle Volume At Depths Below The Primary Pycnocline, Alexander B. Bochdansky, Robert B. Dunbar, Dennis A. Hansell, Gerhard J. Herndl

OES Faculty Publications

Optical instruments can rapidly determine numbers and characteristics of water column particles with high sensitivity. Here we show the usefulness of optically assessed total particle volume below the main pycnocline to estimate carbon export in two systems: the open subarctic North Atlantic and the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Both regions exhibit seasonally high phytoplankton production and efficient export (i.e., a strong biological pump). Total particle volumes in the mesopelagic (200-300 m) were significantly correlated with those in the overlying surface mixed layer (50-60 m), indicating that most particles at depth reflect export from the surface. This connectivity, however, is modulated by …


Interglacial Expansion Of Alpine Glaciers In Garwood Valley, Antarctica, Laura Mattas Aug 2019

Interglacial Expansion Of Alpine Glaciers In Garwood Valley, Antarctica, Laura Mattas

Honors College

It is important to understand the response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) to ongoing global atmospheric and oceanic warming to anticipate future sea-level change. There are several contrasting views in this regard. Harig and Simons (2015) concur with the IPCC (2013) conclusion that, in recent decades, outflow across the peripheral grounding lines of the ice sheet has exceeded increased accumulation on the interior surface of the ice sheet. In contrast, Zwally et al. (2015) suggest that recent surface accumulation in the interior East and West Antarctica has outpaced peripheral losses. They further suggest that this recent positive imbalance adds …


Miocene Glacial Dynamics Recorded By Variations In Magnetic Properties In The Andrill-2a Drill Core, Luigi Jovane, Fabio Florindo, Gary Acton, Christian Ohneiser, Leonardo Sagnotti, Eleonora Strada, Kenneth L. Verosub, Gary S. Wilson, Francesco Iacoviello, Richard H. Levy, Sandra Passchier Mar 2019

Miocene Glacial Dynamics Recorded By Variations In Magnetic Properties In The Andrill-2a Drill Core, Luigi Jovane, Fabio Florindo, Gary Acton, Christian Ohneiser, Leonardo Sagnotti, Eleonora Strada, Kenneth L. Verosub, Gary S. Wilson, Francesco Iacoviello, Richard H. Levy, Sandra Passchier

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

During the 2007 ANtarctic geological DRILLing (ANDRILL) campaign in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, the AND-2A core was recovered through a stratigraphic succession spanning 1,138.54 m of Neogene sedimentary rocks that include an expanded early to middle Miocene sequence. The study reported here focuses on the magnetic properties of the interval from 778.63 m below sea floor (mbsf) to 1,138.54 mbsf, which comprises a time interval spanning 1.5 Myr, from ~18.7 to ~20.2 Ma. We recognize three main pulses of increased input of magnetic materials to the drill site between 778.34–903.06, 950.55–995.78, and 1,040–1,103.96 mbsf. Trends in the magnetic mineral concentration …


The Crust And Upper Mantle Structure Of Central And West Antarctica From Bayesian Inversion Of Rayleigh Wave And Receiver Functions, Weisen Shen, Audrey D. Huerta, J. Paul Winberry Sep 2018

The Crust And Upper Mantle Structure Of Central And West Antarctica From Bayesian Inversion Of Rayleigh Wave And Receiver Functions, Weisen Shen, Audrey D. Huerta, J. Paul Winberry

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

We construct a new seismic model for central and West Antarctica by jointly inverting Rayleigh wave phase and group velocities along with P wave receiver functions. Ambient noise tomography exploiting data from more than 200 seismic stations deployed over the past 18 years is used to construct Rayleigh wave phase and group velocity dispersion maps. Comparison between the ambient noise phase velocity maps with those constructed using teleseismic earthquakes confirms the accuracy of both results. These maps, together with P receiver function waveforms, are used to construct a new 3-D shear velocity (Vs) model for the crust and uppermost mantle …


A Glacial History Of Roberts Massif, Central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, Using Cosmogenic 3he, 10be, And 21ne Surface Exposure Ages, Alexandra M. Balter Aug 2018

A Glacial History Of Roberts Massif, Central Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica, Using Cosmogenic 3he, 10be, And 21ne Surface Exposure Ages, Alexandra M. Balter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ice-free areas at high elevation in the central Transantarctic Mountains preserve moraines and drift deposits that delineate the former thickness and extent of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS); cosmogenic exposure ages on these features indicate when the ice sheet was as or more extensive than today. Approximately 30 existing cosmogenic-nuclide exposure ages from scattered locations within these deposits suggest that some moraines and drift sheets are at least 5 Ma old. Those ages imply that the age range of these deposits may span warm periods during the Miocene and Pliocene, during which the EAIS is hypothesized to have been …


Early Miocene Antarctic Glacial History: New Insights From Heavy Mineral Analysis From Andrill And–2a Drill Core Sediments, Francesco Iacoviello, Giovanna Giorgetti, Isabella Turbanti Memmi, Sandra Passchier Jul 2018

Early Miocene Antarctic Glacial History: New Insights From Heavy Mineral Analysis From Andrill And–2a Drill Core Sediments, Francesco Iacoviello, Giovanna Giorgetti, Isabella Turbanti Memmi, Sandra Passchier

Sandra Passchier

The present study deals with heavy mineral analysis of late Early Miocene marine sediments recovered in the McMurdo Sound region (Ross Sea, Antarctica) during the ANDRILL— SMS Project in 2007. The main objective is to investigate how heavy mineral assemblages reflect different source rocks and hence different provenance areas. These data contribute to a better understanding of East Antarctica ice dynamics in the Ross Sea sector during the Early Miocene (17.6–20.2 Ma), a time of long-term global warming and sea level rise. The AND-2A drill core recovered several stratigraphic intervals that span from Early Miocene to Pleistocene and it collected …


Groundwater And Thermal Legacy Of A Large Paleolake In Taylor Valley, East Antarctica As Evidenced By Airborne Electromagnetic And Sedimentological Techniques, Krista Falcon Myers Jul 2018

Groundwater And Thermal Legacy Of A Large Paleolake In Taylor Valley, East Antarctica As Evidenced By Airborne Electromagnetic And Sedimentological Techniques, Krista Falcon Myers

LSU Master's Theses

During the Last Glacial Maximum, grounded ice in the Ross Sea extended into the otherwise ice-free McMurdo Dry Valleys, creating a series of large ice dammed paleolakes. Grounded ice within the mouth of Taylor Valley allowed for lake levels to reach elevations not possible at modern day and formed what is known as Glacial Lake Washburn (GLW). GLW extended from the eastern portion of Taylor Valley roughly 20 km west to a level ~300 m higher than modern day Lake Fryxell. The formation and existence of GLW has been debated, though previous studies correlate the timing of GLW with early …


A Sedimentological Record Of Early Miocene Ice Advance And Retreat, And-2a Drill Hole, Mcmurdo Sound, Antarctica, B. D. Field, G. H. Browne, Christopher R. Fielding, Fabio Florindo, David M. Harwood, Shelley Judge, Lawrence Krissek, Kurt S. Panter, Sandra Passchier, Stephen Pekar, Sonia Sandroni, Franco M. Talarico Jun 2018

A Sedimentological Record Of Early Miocene Ice Advance And Retreat, And-2a Drill Hole, Mcmurdo Sound, Antarctica, B. D. Field, G. H. Browne, Christopher R. Fielding, Fabio Florindo, David M. Harwood, Shelley Judge, Lawrence Krissek, Kurt S. Panter, Sandra Passchier, Stephen Pekar, Sonia Sandroni, Franco M. Talarico

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The lowest 501 m (∼1139–638 m) of the AND-2A core from southern McMurdo Sound is the most detailed and complete record of early Miocene sediments in Antarctica and indicates substantial variability in Antarctic ice sheet activity during early Miocene time. There are two main pulses of diamictite accumulation recorded in the core, and three significant intervals with almost no coarse clasts. Each diamictite package comprises several sequences consistent with ice advance-retreat episodes.

The oldest phase of diamictite deposition, Composite Sequence 1 (CS1), has evidence for grounded ice at the drill site and has been dated around 20.2–20.1 Ma. It likely …


Evidence Of Subglacial Brine Inflow And Wind-Induced Mixing From High Resolution Temperature Measurements In Lake Bonney, Antarctica, Jade Lawrence Nov 2017

Evidence Of Subglacial Brine Inflow And Wind-Induced Mixing From High Resolution Temperature Measurements In Lake Bonney, Antarctica, Jade Lawrence

LSU Master's Theses

Hypersaline brine beneath Taylor Glacier enters proglacial West Lobe Lake Bonney (WLB) subglacially as well as from Blood Falls, a surface discharge point at the Taylor Glacier terminus. The brine strongly influences the water column of WLB. Because of the extremely high salinities below the chemocline in WLB, density is determined almost entirely by salinity and temperature can be used as a passive tracer. Cold brine intrusions enter WLB at the glacier face and intrude in to the water column at the depth of neutral buoyancy, where they can be identified by anomalously cold temperatures at that depth. This study …