Record Details

Garwood Valley, Antarctica: A new record of Last Glacial Maximum to Holocene glaciofluvial processes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys

ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

Field Value
Title Garwood Valley, Antarctica: A new record of Last Glacial Maximum to Holocene glaciofluvial processes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys
Names Levy, Joseph S. (creator)
Fountain, Andrew G. (creator)
O'Connor, Jim E. (creator)
Welch, Kathy A. (creator)
Lyons, W. Berry (creator)
Date Issued 2013-09 (iso8601)
Note To the best of our knowledge, one or more authors of this paper were federal employees when contributing to this work. This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the Geological Society of America and can be found at: http://gsabulletin.gsapubs.org/.
Abstract We document the age and extent of late Quaternary
glaciofluvial processes in Garwood
Valley, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica,
using mapping, stratigraphy, geochronology,
and geochemical analysis of sedimentary and
ice deposits. Geomorphic and stratigraphic
evidence indicates damming of the valley at
its Ross Sea outlet by the expanded Ross Sea
ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum.
Damming resulted in development of a proglacial
lake in Garwood Valley that persisted
from late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene time,
and in the formation of a multilevel delta
complex that overlies intact, supraglacial till
and buried glacier ice detached from the Ross
Sea ice sheet. Radiocarbon dating of delta
deposits and inferred relationships between
paleolake level and Ross Sea ice sheet grounding
line positions indicate that the Ross Sea
ice sheet advanced north of Garwood Valley
at ca. 21.5 ka and retreated south of the valley
between 7.3 and 5.5 ka. Buried ice remaining
in Garwood Valley has a similar geochemical
fingerprint to grounded Ross Sea ice sheet
material elsewhere in the southern Dry Valleys.
The sedimentary sequence in Garwood
Valley preserves evidence of glaciofluvial
interactions and climate-driven hydrological
activity from the end of the Pleistocene
through the mid-Holocene, making it an unusually
complete record of climate activity
and paleoenvironmental conditions from the
terrestrial Antarctic.
Genre Article
Identifier Levy, J. S., Fountain, A. G., O’Connor, J. E., Welch, K. A., & Lyons, W. B. (2013). Garwood Valley, Antarctica: A new record of Last Glacial Maximum to Holocene glaciofluvial processes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 125(9-10), 1484-1502. doi:10.1130/B30783.1

© Western Waters Digital Library - GWLA member projects - Designed by the J. Willard Marriott Library - Hosted by Oregon State University Libraries and Press