Cruise Preview Report Prydz Bay and Mac.Robertson Shelf, Antarctica January-March 1993

Brief description

The Natural Variability and Past Environmental change Sub-program of the Co-operative Research Centre for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Environments aims to use the records contained in ice and sediments to understand past environmental change to calibrate climatic models. The marine geoscience program for Voyage 7 consists of a sea bed sampling program designed to

. Elucidate sedimentation processes on the Antarctic shelf and slope.

. Provide sediment cores from the Antarctic shelf and slope for the study ofQuaternary environmental change.

Sampling is proposed for Prydz Bay and the adjoining Mac. Robertson Shelf. Prydz Bay is an important site for studying the past behaviour of the Lambert Glacier-Amery Ice Shelf system which is the largest ice stream draining the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The adjacent but contrasting Mac. Robertson Shelf may not have experienced the same style of glaciation during the Quatemary and has accumulated biogenic sediments in places. Bathymetry and 3.5kHz echo sounder data from Prydz Bay reveal features formed by erosion and deposition beneath the Amery Ice Shelf. The extent of post-glaciation iceberg gouging can also be inferred. On the Mac. Robertson Shelf, sediment accumulations suitable for coring can also be interpreted from the 3.5 kHz records. Fifteen gravity cores at sites selected to help interpret the Late Quaternary history of Prydz Bay and the Mac. Robertson Shelf will be collected on Voyage 7 of the 1992/93 Antarctic Division shipping season, on the R.V. Aurora Australis. An additional core from BANZARE Bank, the southern-most extension of the Kerguelen Plateau will be collected for palaeotemperature studies at the Co-operative Research Centre for Antarctic and Southern Ocean Environments. Grab samples will also be collected to elucidate modem sediment types in Prydz Bay and the Mac. Robertson Shelf.

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