Principal Investigators: Martin Lagoe and Ben Sloan

Funded by: National Science Foundation

Quaternary glacial marine deposits of the Larsen Basin are uniquely suited for study of the modern environmental setting and recent paleoclimatic evolution of the northeastern Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf, an area thought to exhibit pronounced sensitivity to climatic changes. Microfossils and their stable isotope signatures from these deposits provide information on varying oceanographic conditions, ice mass extent, and sediment dispersal. Questions to be answered include: 1) What are the faunal and isotopic responses to glaciation, both proximal and distal to the variety of small and medium ice masses in the area? 2) What is the relationship between physical evidence of ice position, as expressed in sediments and seismic data, and the faunal and isotopic signatures thereof? 3) To what extent is an environmental model of the highly variable interglacial Modern shelf applicable to describing and understanding late Quaternary environments representative of different climatic regimes?