Authors / CoAuthors
Carson, C.J. | Post, A.L. | Smith, J. | Walker, G. | Waring, P.
Abstract
High-resolution marine sonar swath mapping, covering an area of ca. 33 km2 in the vicinity of the Windmill Islands (67° S, 110° E), Wilkes Land, east Antarctica, permits visualisation and description of the near-shore geomorphology of the seafloor environment in unprecedented detail and provides invaluable insight into the ice-sheet history of the region. Mesoproterozoic metamorphic basement exhibits prominent sets of parallel northwest-trending linear fault sets that probably formed during fragmentation of eastern Gondwana during the Mesozoic. The fault systems appear to control regional coastal physiographic features and have, in places, been preferentially eroded and exploited by subsequent glacial activity. Possibly the earliest formed glacially-derived geomorphological elements are networks of sub-glacial meltwater channels which are preserved on bedrock platforms and ridges. Subtle glacial lineations and streamlined landforms record evidence of the westward expansion of the grounded, Law Dome ice sheet margin, probably during the late Pleistocene Last Glacial Maximum, the direction of which coincides with glacial striae on onshore crystalline bedrock outcrops. The most striking glacial geomorphological features are sets of arcuate ridges confined mostly within glacially excavated `U-shaped valleys, exploiting and developed along bedrock fault sets. These ridge sets are interpreted as `push moraines or grounding zone features, formed during episodic retreat of highly channelised, topographically controlled ice-streams following ice surging, possibly in response to local environmental forcing during the mid-late Holocene. Minor post-glacial marine sedimentation is preserved in several small (1 km2) `isolated marine basins with shallow seaward sills.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
90095
Contact for the resource
Custodian
Owner
Custodian
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Digital Object Identifier
Keywords
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- External PublicationScientific Journal Paper
- ( Theme )
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- Antarctic data
- ( Theme )
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- Bathymetry
- ( Theme )
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- Continental Shelf
- ( Theme )
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- geomorphology
- ( Theme )
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- marine survey
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- AAT
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Marine Geoscience
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- Published_External
Publication Date
2017-05-30T14:00:00
Creation Date
2016-01-01T00:00:00
Security Constraints
Legal Constraints
Status
Purpose
Maintenance Information
notPlanned
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Lineage
Not applicable
Parent Information
Extents
[-67, -66, 110, 111]
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
Service Information
Associations
Source Information
Source data not available.