Abstract

Future changes of polar environmental conditions under different global warming scenarios are highly debated. Ice-free Arctic summers, increased melting of Greenland Ice Sheet and retreat of sectors of the Antarctic ice sheets are anticipated consequences of ongoing climate change. Key uncertainties in future projections of climate change are related to the lack of understanding of the past behavior of ice sheets, and their influence on the oceanographic system and climate. On glaciated margins, changes in ice-sheet extent result in the erosion, transport, and redistribution of sediments across the inner continental shelf to more distal sedimentary basins. Geophysical and geological records are used to develop the stratigraphic architecture that allows for the reconstruction of shifts in ice-sheet dynamics and extent, and identification of cryospheric links with the global climate system. The present-day morpho-stratigraphy of the Ross Sea is the result of Cenozoic tectonic and cryospheric events. In this talk, I’ll show you examples of glacial-related features observed on a dense dataset of seismic reflection profiles in the Ross Sea. Through evaluation of such seismic facies and age constraints from the drilling sites, I propose a correlation of the regional patterns of early to middle Miocene ( _{18 Ma –} 14 Ma) ice-sheet variance in the Ross Sea.