Geomorphology of the Deglaciated Parts of the South Shetland Islands, Implications for Environmental Changes

Deglaciation in the Antarctic Peninsula has significant impacts on ice-free environments, particularly on coastal geomorphology and ecology. This study focuses on the South Shetland Islands, aiming to map particularly clastic coasts as they are the most sensitive geomorphic units respond to changing climate and Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA).
While there is currently no comprehensive database of all coastal types and modern and paleo shorelines of the archipelago, this research serves as an inventory of clastic coasts as geomorphic markers of changing climate, hydrology and glacial isostatic response.
Utilizing satellite images compiled from the Quantarctica database, various coastal and glacial geomorphological features were mapped in QGIS.
We mapped modern shorelines, beach ridges, sand spits, lagoons, fan deltas, paleoshorelines, marine terraces as the geomorphic evidence of environmental changing as a result of changing climate and retreat of glaciers.
The spatial distribution of these landforms implies that exposure of deglaciated surfaces provide new sediments for coastal rivers and also longshore drifts to enlarge and propagate the clastic coasts although the isostatic rebound uplifts the islands and interrupts their development.