Six million years of glacial history recorded in volcanic lithofacies of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group, Antarctic Peninsula

Smellie, John L.; Johnson, Joanne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4537-4447; McIntosh, W.C.; Esser, R.; Gudmundsson, M.T.; Hambrey, M.J.; van Wyk de Vries, B.. 2008 Six million years of glacial history recorded in volcanic lithofacies of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group, Antarctic Peninsula. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 260 (1-2). 122-148. 10.1016/j.palaeo.2007.08.011

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Abstract/Summary

Basaltic volcanism in the James Ross Island region has been persistent over the last 6 million years resulting in at least 50 mainly effusive eruptions that are preserved predominantly as lava-fed deltas and a small number of tuff cones. Most of the eruptions took place during glacial periods, and the deltas have enabled the characteristics of the palaeo-glacier cover to be deduced for the first time, for multiple time slices. The resolution of Ar-40/Ar-39 dating of young basaltic lavas is relatively poor compared with the duration of glacial-interglacial periods and precludes any Milankovitch-scale cyclicity being identified, a problem that is now becoming acute in palaeoenvironmental investigations of this type. Our results indicate that glacial periods were characterised by a relatively thin glacier cover in this area, typically just 200-350 in. They were interspersed with fewer periods of thicker ice c. 600-750 in in thickness. These are likely maximum estimates and they may be too high by a few tens of metres. The glacier cover increased in thickness toward the present. However, as evidenced by 4.6 myr-old surfaces at c. 620 in a.s.l. that are glacially unmodified other than frost shattering, no evidence has been found for a substantially thicker ice sheet at any time during the last 6 myr. The glacier cover was formed predominantly of ice (sensu stricto) that was wet-based and erosive. Thus it had a temperate or, probably more likely, sub-polar (i.e. polythermal) thermal regime and, if the ice reached the continental shelf edge, it must have had a low profile. After an early history (c. 6.2-4.6 Ma) dominated by an areally extensive Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS), the local glacial morphodynamics were determined by a local ice cap that draped James Ross Island and was presumably confluent with the APIS along its western margin. These results are the first evidence for the morphology, thickness and thermal regime of the glacier cover in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region for the late Neogene-Quaternary period.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1016/j.palaeo.2007.08.011
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Global Science in the Antarctic Context (2005-2009) > Greenhouse to Icehouse. Evolution of the Antarctic Cryosphere and Palaeoenvironment
ISSN:	0031-0182
Additional Keywords:	miocene; pliocene; Ar-40/Ar-39; glaciovolcanism; glacial; interglacial; Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet
NORA Subject Terms:	Glaciology Earth Sciences
Date made live:	20 Jan 2011 12:06 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/11628

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1016/j.palaeo.2007.08.011

Programmes:

BAS Programmes > Global Science in the Antarctic Context (2005-2009) > Greenhouse to Icehouse. Evolution of the Antarctic Cryosphere and Palaeoenvironment

ISSN:

0031-0182

Additional Keywords:

miocene; pliocene; Ar-40/Ar-39; glaciovolcanism; glacial; interglacial; Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet

NORA Subject Terms:

Glaciology
Earth Sciences