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Soil preservation and ventifact recycling from dry-based glaciers in Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2010

James G. Bockheim
James G. Bockheim*
Affiliation:
Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706-1299, USA
*
bockheim@wisc.edu
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Abstract

Soil preservation from three glacial thermal regimes was examined in the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM) using the University of Wisconsin Antarctic Soils Database (http://nsidc.org/data/ggd221). Glacial thermal regimes included temperate (wet-based) glaciers from overriding of the TAM prior to c. 15Ma bp and subsequent polar (dry-based) glaciers. The glacial thermal regimes were distinguished from landform, sediment and erosional features. Buried soils were most common from deposition by dry-based glaciers (44 of 51 pedons). Several of these buried soils had a desert pavement intact with in situ ventifacts. Fifteen percent of the pedons contained recycled ventifacts in relict and buried soils that ranged from late Quaternary to Miocene in age, particularly in drift from dry-based glaciers (56 of 77 pedons). Overall 84% of the buried soils and 78% of the pedons with recycled ventifacts originated from dry-based glaciers. The proportion of soils with recycled clasts on a particular drift was greatest where the ratio of drift thickness to soil thickness (“recycling ratio”) was the least. These data illustrate the effectiveness of Antarctic dry-based glaciers in preserving underlying landforms and deposits, including soils. Moreover, the data imply that Antarctic glaciers have been recycling clasts for the past c. 15Ma. These findings have important implications in selecting surface boulders for cosmogenic dating.

Keywords

boulder belt morainesburied soilsrecycled ventifactsTransantarctic Mountains
Type
Earth Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , August 2010 , pp. 409 - 417
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2010

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