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Submarine landforms related to glacier retreat in a shallow Antarctic fjord

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2016

Anne-Cathrin Wölfl ,
Nina Wittenberg ,
Peter Feldens ,
H. Christian Hass ,
Christian Betzler  and
Gerhard Kuhn
Anne-Cathrin Wölfl*
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Wadden Sea Research Station, Hafenstrasse 43, 25992 List, Germany
Nina Wittenberg
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Wadden Sea Research Station, Hafenstrasse 43, 25992 List, Germany
Peter Feldens
Affiliation:
Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Seestraße 15, 18119 Rostock, Germany
H. Christian Hass
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Wadden Sea Research Station, Hafenstrasse 43, 25992 List, Germany
Christian Betzler
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology and Paleontology, University of Hamburg, Bundesstrasse 55, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Gerhard Kuhn
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Am Alten Hafen 26, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany
*
Anne-Cathrin.Woelfl@awi.de
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Abstract

Since the Last Glacial Maximum, ice has retreated through the fjords of the South Shetland Islands leaving a valuable record of submarine landforms behind. In this study, glacial landforms and sub-bottom characteristics have been mapped to investigate the late Holocene retreat behaviour of the Fourcade Glacier and to delineate past environmental processes in Potter Cove, King George Island. The comprehensive datasets include high-resolution swath bathymetry, shallow seismic profiling and one sediment core. Moraines, moraine incisions and glacial lineations were mapped on the sea floor in the inner part of the cove, whereas pockmarks, ice scour marks and channel structures were identified in the outer part. Sub-bottom characteristics have been assigned to different acoustic facies types indicating different depositional settings. The results reveal glacial recessions as well as stillstands and potential readvances during the late Holocene. Furthermore, the sediment record indicates that the Fourcade Glacier was situated inside the inner cove during the Little Ice Age (500–100 cal yr bp).

Keywords

deglaciationKing George Islandmultibeam sonarPotter Covesea floor morphologysediment echosounding
Type
Earth Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 28 , Issue 6 , December 2016 , pp. 475 - 486
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Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2016 

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Footnotes

#

These authors contributed equally to this work

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