Iceberg ploughmarks and associated sediment ridges on the southern Weddell Sea margin

Gales, J.A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4402-5800; Larter, R.A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8414-7389; Leat, P.T.. 2016 Iceberg ploughmarks and associated sediment ridges on the southern Weddell Sea margin. In: Dowdeswell, J.A., (ed.) Atlas of submarine glacial landforms : modern, Quaternary and ancient. London, UK, Geological Society of London, 289-290. (Geological Society Memoir, 46).

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Abstract/Summary

Ploughing by deep keels of floating icebergs is a common feature of high-latitude continental margins. Icebergs that have calved from glaciers or ice sheets produce a range of seafloor signatures, including linear to curvilinear grooves, rounded pits and ploughmarks terminating in sediment ridges. The dimensions and patterns of iceberg ploughmarks vary with iceberg size, water depth, local current, tide and wind conditions, seafloor sediment and past glacial history. The outer shelf and upper continental slope of the southern Weddell Sea is extensively ploughed by icebergs, and three different types of iceberg ploughmarks are recognized. The first signature is small grounding pits which occur over a wide area of the upper slope to water depths of c. 720 m (white arrow in Fig. 1a). The grounding pits have a mean depth of 8 m and a mean diameter of 280 m. The pits appear to be distributed randomly, with the highest intensity occurring in water depths of 410–670 m.

Item Type:	Publication - Book Section
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1144/M46.11
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > BAS Programmes 2015 > Palaeo-Environments, Ice Sheets and Climate Change
Date made live:	06 Jan 2017 09:29 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/513828

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