Ice Stream Troughs and Variety of Cenozoic Seismic Stratigraphic Architecture From a High Southern Latitude Section: Ross Sea Antarctica

Abstract

This series of figures illustrates the significance of gaining a better understanding of the seismic stratigraphy and chronostratigraphy of depositional units in the Ross Sea. Bartek et al., [1991] present Neogene shelf margin aggradation and progradation patterns that appear to be eustatically driven. Comparison to the Hag et al. [1987] Cenozoic sea level chart suggests that waxing and waning of Antarctic ice sheets appears to be synchronous with these eustatic events. We are currently working on refining the coarse chronostratigraphy that currently exists in the Ross Sea (numbered units 1–13 Anderson and Bartek [1992]). We have also identified a number of seismic facies that appear to represent a broad spectrum of glacial regimes ranging from interglacial to temperate glacial to perhaps polar glacial. However, a problem in this area is that, although there are more than 14,000 km of high to intermediate resolution seismic data, very few cores penetrate this material and so many of our interpretations must remain tentative and speculative. It is also interesting to note that some of the features we observe have not been reported in the literature from other locales so there is little basis for comparison.