Pleistocene East Antarctic Ice Sheet History as Recorded in Sediment Provenance and Chronology of High-elevation TAM Moraines


Dataset Identification:

Resource Abstract:
Abstract: Intellectual Merit: The proposed work will investigate changes in the compositional variation of glacial tills over time across two concentric sequences of Pleistocene moraines located adjacent to the heads of East Antarctic outlet glaciers in the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM). The chronologic framework for this work will be generated from cosmogenic exposure ages of boulders on prominent morainal ridges. The PIs hypothesize that variations in till composition may indicate a change in ice flow direction or a change in the composition of the original source area, while ages of the moraines provide a long-term terrestrial perspective on ice sheet dynamics. Both results are vital for modeling experiments that aim to reconstruct the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and assess its role in the global climate system and its potential impact on global sea level rise. The variation of till compositions through time also allows for a more accurate interpretation of sediment cores from the Ross Sea and the Southern Ocean. Additionally, till exposures at the head of some East Antarctic outlet glaciers have been shown to contain subglacial material derived from East Antarctic bedrock, providing a window through the ice to view East Antarctica's inaccessible bedrock. Till samples will be collected from two well-preserved sequences of moraine crests at Mt. Howe (head of Scott Glacier) and Mt. Achernar (between Beardmore and Nimrod Glaciers). Each size fraction in glacial till provides potentially valuable information, and the PIs will measure the petrography of the clast and sand fractions, quantitative X-ray diffraction on the crushed <2mm fraction, elemental abundance of the silt/clay fraction, and U/Pb of detrital zircons in the sand fraction. Data collection will rely on established methods previously used in this region and the PIs will also explore new methods to assess their efficacy. On the same moraines crests sampled for provenance studies, the PIs will sample for cosmogenic surface exposure analyses to provide a chronologic framework at the sites for provenance changes through time. Broader Impact: The proposed research involves graduate and undergraduate training in a diverse array of laboratory methods. Students and PIs will be make presentations to community and campus groups, as well as conduct interviews with local news outlets. The proposed work also establishes a new, potentially long-term, collaboration between scientists at IUPUI and LDEO and brings a new PI (Kaplan) into the field of Antarctic Earth Sciences.
Citation
Title  Pleistocene East Antarctic Ice Sheet History as Recorded in Sediment Provenance and Chronology of High-elevation TAM Moraines
publication date 2014
cited responsible party - author
individual Name  Kaplan, Michael
organisation Name  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, 10964, US
Contact information
Postal Address:
electronic Mail Address: mkaplan@ldeo.columbia.edu
cited responsible party - publisher
organisation Name  U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) Data Center
No contact information provided.
Topic Category:   geoscientificInformation
Keywords:
Resource language:   eng
Resource progress code:   Complete
Constraints on resource usage:
Constraints
Use limitation statement:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0]
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
Access Constraints   license
Other constraints
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0]
Constraints on resource usage:
Security Constraints
Classification  unclassified
Resource extent
Extent description
Transantarctic Mountains
Geographic Extent
Geographic Bounding Box
westBoundLongitude  161.2
eastBoundLongitude  180
northBoundLatitude  -84.1
southBoundLatitude  -87.4
Geographic Bounding Box
westBoundLongitude  -180
eastBoundLongitude  -149.7
northBoundLatitude  -84.1
southBoundLatitude  -87.4
Resource extent
Temporal Extent
2010-06-01 2014-05-31
Credits:
funderName:NSF:GEO:PLR:Antarctic Earth Sciences awardNumber:0944475 awardTitle:Collaborative Research: Pleistocene East Antarctic Ice Sheet History as Recorded in Sediment Provenance and Chronology of High-elevation TAM Moraines
point of contact - pointOfContact
individual Name  Kaplan, Michael
organisation Name  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, 10964, US
No contact information provided.
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name  Landing Page
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.15784/600115
protocol  WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function  information
Description  Link to DOI landing page or data facility landing page if no DOI is assigned.
Linkage for online resource
name  landing page
URL: http://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/600115
protocol  WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
link function  information
Description  Link to a web page related to the resource.
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Metadata Information

Metadata data stamp:  2018-05-17
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:
notes:  This metadata record was generated by an xslt transformation from a DataCite metadata record; The transform was created by Damian Ulbricht and Stephen M. Richard. 2017-11-15 these records include new IEDA keywords for geoportal facets Run on 2018-06-21T19:05:24-07:00
Metadata contact - pointOfContact
organisation Name  Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance
Contact information
Postal Address:
electronic Mail Address: web@usap-dc.org
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://www.usap-dc.org/static/imgs/header/usaplogo.png
link function  browseGraphic
Metadata scope code  dataset
Metadata hierarchy level name:  Dataset
Metadata language   eng
Metadata character set encoding:   utf8
Metadata standard for this record:  ISO 19139 Geographic Information - Metadata - Implementation Specification
standard version:  2007
Metadata record identifier:  urn:ieda:metadataabout:10.15784-600115
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Metadata record format is ISO19139 XML (MD_Metadata)