Abstract
Drift sediments recovered from the East Antarctic continental rise at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1165 are used to infer variations in East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) stability and sea ice coverage during the late Miocene and early Pliocene. A significant increase in the deposition of biogenic opal from ~5.8 to 5.2 Ma points to an early Pliocene reduction in sea ice and a subsequent increase in biological productivity. Time intervals at ~7.2 to 6.6 Ma and ~5.2 to 4.8 Ma are characterized by pronounced maxima in the long-term trend of terrigenous matter accumulation (MARter) indicating high continental erosion rates potentially caused by ice sheet growth. A Southern Ocean wide impact of these events is suggested by similar evidence found at ODP Site 1095 (Antarctic Peninsula). Superimposed on the MARter maxima we observe enhanced orbital variability in iron accumulation at Site 1165 pointing to a dynamic behavior of the EAIS with waxing and waning ice masses. From the concurrence of these high amplitude ice sheet fluctuations with maximum variance in Earth's obliquity, we propose that the insolation gradient between high and low latitudes affected the delivery of moisture to Antarctica and thus controlled ice volume variations.
Reprinted with permission from Elsevier Science.
Abstract
Ocean Drilling Program Site 1165 penetrated drift sediments on the East Antarctic continental rise and recovered sediments from a low-energy depositional environment. The sediments are characterized by prominent alternations between a green to greenish-gray diatom-bearing hemipelagic facies and gray to dark gray hemiturbiditic facies. Our investigation of an upper Miocene section, using high-resolution color spectra, multisensor core logs, and X-ray fluorescence scans, reveals that sedimentation changes occur at Milankovitch orbital frequencies of obliquity and precession. We use this finding to derive an astronomical calibrated time scale and to calculate iron mass-accumulation rates, as a proxy for sediment-accumulation rates. Terrigenous iron fluxes change by as much as 100% during each obliquity cycle. This change and an episodic pattern of enhanced ice-rafted debris deposition during times of deglaciation provide evidence for a dynamic and likely wet-based late Miocene East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) that underwent large size variations at orbital time scales. The dynamic behavior of the EAIS implies that a significant proportion of the variability seen in oxygen isotope records of the late Miocene reflects Antarctic ice-volume changes.
Reprinted with permission from the Geological Society of America.
Abstract
The Ocean Drilling Program Leg 188 Site 1165 was drilled on the Wild Drift on the Continental Rise off Prydz Bay, East Antarctica to a total depth of 999.1 meters below seafloor (mbsf). It recovered an extensive suite of terrigenous and hemipelagic sediments of early Miocene to Pleistocene age. Of special interest in this study is the sediment column between 0 and 50 mbsf, which consists of a well-preserved section of Pliocene–Pleistocene-age sediments that was sampled at 10-cm intervals. Multiproxy study of this interval could show possible intervals of expansions of the ice-sheet across the continental shelves and express the climatic evolution in Antarctica, particularly during the "middle" Pliocene warm period (3.15 to 2.85 Ma) which may provide an indication of how the Earth responds to a rise of its surface temperature.
According to the existing age model, the upper 50 mbsf stratigraphic sequence of Site 1165 reaches back to ~4.9 Ma. Throughout this interval, the clay-mineral content is characterized by fluctuations of individual clay minerals, particularly smectite and chlorite. The smectite concentration varies mainly between 0% and 30%. Illite fluctuates less between 50% and 80%, and kaolinite varies mainly between 10% and 20%. Chlorite concentrations are mainly 0% to 10%. There is also a noticeable change in magnetic susceptibility at ~34 mbsf that is clearly indicated in the composition of the clay-mineral suite. At this level, smectite decreases and illite, kaolinite and chlorite show some variability. In particular, there is a slight but persistent increase in chlorite. The results from the Plio-Pleistocene transition, with evenly fluctuating smectite and illite contents and the gradually increasing chlorite content, may indicate cooler conditions compared to the mid-Pliocene conditions. Slight increase in illite content and decrease in smectite content towards Pleistocene supports the previous assumption. The results from the mid-Pliocene with the increasing smectite content and decreasing illite content may indicate warmer and possibly interglacial conditions.
Reprinted with permission from Elsevier Science.
Abstract
Lithostratigraphy, grain sizes and down-hole logs of Site 1166 on the continental shelf, and Site 1167 on the upper slope, are analyzed to reconstruct glacial processes in eastern Prydz Bay and the development of the Prydz trough-mouth fan. In eastern Prydz Bay upper Pliocene–lower Pleistocene glaciomarine sediments occur interbedded with open-marine muds and grade upward into waterlaid tills and subglacial tills. Lower Pleistocene sediments of the trough-mouth fan consist of coarse-grained debrites interbedded with bottom-current deposits and hemipelagic muds, indicating repeated advances and retreats of the Lambert Glacier–Amery Ice Shelf system with respect to the shelf break. Systematic fluctuations in lithofacies and down-hole logs characterize the upper Pliocene–lower Pleistocene transition at Sites 1166 and 1167 and indicate that an ice stream advanced and retreated within the Prydz Channel until the mid Pleistocene. The record from Site 1167 shows that the grounding line of the Lambert Glacier did not extend to the shelf break after 0.78 Ma. Published ice-rafted debris records in the Southern Ocean show peak abundances in the Pliocene and the early Pleistocene, suggesting a link between the nature of the glacial drainage system as recorded by the trough-mouth fans and increased delivery of ice-rafted debris to the Southern Ocean.
Reprinted with permission from Elsevier Science and ScienceDirect.
Abstract
Rare to few specimens of the late Miocene age nannolith, Minylitha convallis were noted in contintental rise drift deposits recovered during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 188, Prydz Bay, Antarctica at 64°S latitude. This nannofossil species has not been previously reported at such an extreme high latitude, and this occurrence extends its known geographic range to the margin of Antarctica. Although its ecologic constraints are not well known, its presence in one sample, along with even more rare specimens of Discoaster spp. and Sphenolithus abies possibly indicates a very brief warming of sea-surface temperatures near the Antarctic margin during the late Miocene (~10.3-9.0 Ma).
Reprinted with permission from the Journal of Nannoplankton Research.
Abstract
Ocean Drilling Program Leg 188, Prydz Bay, East Antarctica is part of a larger initiative to explore the Cenozoic history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet through direct drilling and sampling of the continental margins. In this paper, we present stable isotopic results from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1167 located on the Prydz Channel Trough Mouth Fan (TMF), the first Antarctic TMF to be drilled. The foraminifer-based 
18O record is interpreted along with sedimentary and downhole logging evidence to reconstruct the Quaternary glacial history of Prydz Bay and the adjacent Lambert Glacier Amery Ice Shelf System (LGAISS). We report an electron spin resonance age date of 36.9±3.3 ka at 0.45 m below sea floor and correlate suspected glacial–interglacial cycles with the global isotopic stratigraphy to improve the chronology for Site 1167. The 18O record based on planktonic (Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (s.)) and limited benthic results (Globocassidulina crassa), indicates a trend of ice sheet expansion that was interrupted by a period of reduced ice volume and possibly warmer conditions during the early–mid-Pleistocene (0.9–1.38 Ma). An increase in 18O values after ~900 ka appears to coincide with the mid-Pleistocene climate transition and the expansion of the northern hemisphere ice sheet. The 18O record in the upper 50 m of the stratigraphic section indicates as few as three glacial–interglacial cycles, tentatively assigned as marine isotopic stages (MIS) 16–21, are preserved since the Brunhes/Matuyama paleomagnetic reversal (780 ka). This suggests that there is a large unconformity near the top of the section and/or that there may have been few extreme advances of the ice sheet since the mid-Pleistocene climate transition resulting in lowered sedimentation rates on the Prydz Channel TMF. The stable isotopic record from Site 1167 is one of the few available from the area south of the Antarctic Polar Front that has been linked with the global isotopic stratigraphy. Our results suggest the potential for the recovery of useful stable isotopic records in other TMFs.
Reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
Abstract
Antarctic sea-ice concentration at Ocean Drilling Program Sites 1165 (64.380°S, 67.219°E) and 1166 (67.696°S, 74.787°E) was lower than today through much of the Pliocene. The low sea-ice concentration is evident from the proportion of the diatom Eucampia antarctica with intercalary valves (Eucampia index). This sea-ice proxy was calibrated by using modern diatom data obtained from core-top samples and winter sea-ice concentration data (September average through 1979-1987). The modern relationship is expressed as a binomial generalized linear model (modern sea-ice model). This model was applied to the Pliocene Eucampia index within a 95% tolerance interval (obtained from bootstrap estimates). The results indicate that reduced winter sea-ice concentrations persisted through much of the Pliocene and at times were 78% and 61% relatively less concentrated than today at Sites 1165 and 1166, respectively.
Reprinted with permission from the Geological Society of America.