Provenance of basement erratics in Quaternary coastal morain
Details of Research
TitleProvenance of basement erratics in Quaternary coastal moraines, southern McMurdo Sound, and implications for the source of Eocene sedimentary rocksAbstractThis paper summarizes fieldwork conducted in 2007 and presents results of petrographical analyses of basement rocks that occur along with fossil-rich Eocene sedimentary erratics in moraines along the north-east flank of Mount Discovery in southern McMurdo Sound. The Eocene rocks are significant as they provide a rare glimpse into greenhouse environments at high southern latitudes. Basement erratics recovered from the moraines are petrographically similar to metamorphic and igneous rocks exposed in the Transantarctic Mountains at locations between the Carlyon and Skelton glaciers and/or within the drainage catchments of Mulock and Skelton glaciers. These new clast provenance data imply that the Eocene sedimentary erratics are most likely derived from outcrops that are currently located beneath the Ross Ice Shelf south and/or immediately east of Minna Bluff. The suite of basement and sedimentary erratics were transported to their present location by ice that flowed north-eastwards from the Skelton-Mulock region and was pushed westwards into southern McMurdo Sound by grounded ice flowing north from West Antarctica. Results from this study support prior reconstructions of ice flow during peak glacial intervals during the Miocene-Pleistocene including the Last Glacial Maximum. Copyright 2013 Antarctic Science Ltd.AcknowledgementsWe would like to acknowledge M. Flowerdew, T. Paulsen and S. Rocchi for their helpful comments and suggestions. The ANDRILL Science Management Office at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln provided operational support during fieldwork. This research was carried out with the financial support of the Italian Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide and PRIN2008.
Details
1st AuthorTalarico, F.AuthorTalarico, F.Pace, D.Levy, R.Year2013JournalAntarctic ScienceVolume25Number5Pages681-695DOI10.1017/S0954102013000072URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/recor.....984a585ef9146386bb952169cKeywordsbasement rockclastEoceneerraticglacial landformice flowmoraineprovenanceQuaternarysedimentary rock, AntarcticaEast AntarcticaMcMurdo Sound, rank3Author KeywordsAntarcticaCenozoicglacial erraticpetrographic analysesTransantarctic Mountains
Other
TypeArticleCitationTalarico, F., Pace, D. and Levy, R. (2013) Provenance of basement erratics in Quaternary coastal moraines, southern McMurdo Sound, and implications for the source of Eocene sedimentary rocks. Antarctic Science, 25(5): 681-695 doi:10.1017/S0954102013000072 IdentifierTalarico2013Relevancerank3
Levy, R., Provenance of basement erratics in Quaternary coastal morain, [Talarico2013]. Antarctica NZ, accessed 20/07/2025, https://adam.antarcticanz.govt.nz/nodes/view/63793, 10.1017/S0954102013000072