EGU22-1667, updated on 27 Mar 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1667
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

A Path to Quantitative Interpretation of Antarctic Sediment Provenance Records

Jim Marschalek1, Edward Gasson2, Tina van de Flierdt1, Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand3, and Marin Siegert1
Jim Marschalek et al.
  • 1Department of Earth Science and Engineering and Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, London, UK (jwm17@ic.ac.uk).
  • 2Centre for Geography and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall, UK.
  • 3British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, UK

Tracing the provenance of Antarctic sediments yields unique insights into the form and flow of past ice sheets. However, sediment provenance studies are typically limited to qualitative interpretations by uncertainties regarding subglacial geology, glacial erosion, and transport of sediment both subglacially and beyond the ice sheet margin. Here, we forward model marine geochemical sediment provenance data, in particular neodymium isotope ratios. Numerical ice-sheet modelling predicts the spatial pattern of subglacial erosion rates for a given ice sheet configuration, then ice flow paths are traced to the ice sheet margin. For the modern ice sheet, simple approximations of glacimarine sediment transport processes produce a good agreement with Holocene surface sediments in many areas of glaciological interest. Calibrating our model to the modern setting permits application of the approach to past ice sheet configurations, which show that large changes to sediment provenance over time can be reconstructed around the West Antarctic margin. This first step towards greater integration of Antarctic sediment provenance data with numerical modelling offers the potential for advances in both fields.

How to cite: Marschalek, J., Gasson, E., van de Flierdt, T., Hillenbrand, C.-D., and Siegert, M.: A Path to Quantitative Interpretation of Antarctic Sediment Provenance Records, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-1667, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-1667, 2022.