Directory

Start date:
December 2014
End date:
December 2014
Locations:
Friis Hills, Mount Boreas
Principle Investigator:
Professor Richard Levy
Organisation:
Victoria University of Wellington
The overall goal of this work is to understand the retreat of Antarctic ice sheets during the last deglaciation (20,000 years ago to present). During this period the East and West Antarctic Ice Sheets receded from advanced positions at the continental shelf margin to the present-day ice sheet configuration. We do not currently know when the ice sheet started to retreat, whether this retreat was gradual or episodic, and when it stopped. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet has been suggested by Clark et al. (2009) as one of the possible sources of Meltwater Pulse 1a, a 10-20 m sea level rise which occurred between 15-14,000 years ago. Work to date in East Antarctica (e.g. Mackintosh et al., 2011) does not support this view. K001-1415-B intends to:
Locate, describe, and sample Miocene sedimentary deposits at Friis Hills
Recover permafrost cores 0.5 - 3m deep
Conduct seismic survey across Miocene deposit at Friis Hills
Describe and sample deposits at Mt Boreas