Publikationsdatum:
2018-08-10
Beschreibung:
During the last season and ongoing planning, pre-site surveys are operated at the Ekströmisen, Dronning
Maud Land, close to the Neumayer-Station III, with the primary target to build a stratigraphic age framework
of the under-shelf-ice-sediments. These sediments are overlying the Explora Wedge [1], [2], a syn- or postrift
volcanic deposit, and dipping north- to north-eastward. Expected ages could range from Late Mesozoic to
Quaternary. From new vibroseismic profiles we will select sites for short core seafloor sampling of the oldest
and of the youngest sediment sequences to confine their age time span.
After that, we could select one or several sites for potential deep drillings (several hundred-meter-deep) with
the support of international partner, if we could rise interest. The deep drillings should recover the sediments
overlying the Explora Escarpment, and should discover the nature of the Explora Wedge as well. We expect
that the overlying sediment sequences could reveal the history of polar amplification and climate changes in
this part of Antarctica, the build-up of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during past warmer climates and its
Cenozoic and future dynamic and variability.
The plan for seasons 2017/18 and 2018/19 are the testing of different sea floor sampling techniques through
Hot Water Drill (HWD) holes. To select the drill sites for this shallow coring additional high resolution seismic
will be acquired as well.
Having holes through the shelf ice and sampling the sea floor will provide the unique opportunity for further
piggy bag experiments consisting of multi-disciplinary nature. Experiments and measuring setup for
oceanography, sea and shelf ice physics, geophysics, geology, hydrography, and biogeochemistry could be
planned to characterize the sea-ice and shelf ice system, underlying water column, and the sediments. Video
characterization underneath the shelf ice and at the seafloor, sediment trap deployment, seafloor mapping
with an AUV (Leng, DFKI, ROBEX) could lead as well to innovative new interdisciplinary observations and
discoveries of the sub-ice environment and ecosystem [3].
References:
[1] Eisen, O., Hofstede, C., Diez, A., Kristoffersen, Y., Lambrecht, A., Mayer, C., Blenkner, R. & Hilmarsson, S., (2015), On-ice vibroseis
and snowstream¬er systems for geoscientific research, Polar Science, 51-65, 9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.polar.2014.10.003.
[2] Kristoffersen, Y., Hofstede, C., Diez, A., Blenkner, R., Lambrecht, A., Mayer, C. & Eisen, O., (2014), Reassembling Gondwana: A
new high quality constraint from vibroseis exploration of the sub-ice shelf geology of the East Antarctic continental margin, J. Geophys.
Res. Solid Earth, 9171-9182, 119
[3] Kuhn, G. & Gaedicke, C., (2015), A plan for interdisciplinary process-studies and geoscientific observations beneath the Ekström Ice
Shelf (Sub-EIS-Obs), Polarforschung, 99-102, 84
Repository-Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Materialart:
Conference
,
notRev
Format:
application/pdf
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