Monday, 27 August 2007
1.PS-2

"Granulometric analysis of pebble beach ridges in Fort Williams Point, Greenwich Island, Antarctic Peninsula; elements for paleoclimate variations during the Holocene"

Essy Santana, Marine Geology, INOCAR, Avenida de la Marina, Base Naval Sur, Guayaquil, Ecuador and Jean-François Dumont, Geosciences Azur UMR 6526, IRD, Observatoire Océanologique, La Darse, Villefranche sur Mer, 06235, France.

We present a granulometric study of pebble beach ridges from the coastal uplifted platforms in the Fort Williams Point, Antarctic Peninsula. 8 beach ridges are scaled from the shore up to 13.5 m above current sea level. Flat areas showing the rock basement or ice formed boulder pavement separate the beach ridges. The beach ridges are made of volcanic material from the surrounding relief, but also include gneiss and granodiorite pebble and cobble transported here as till. Analysis of 2100 samples in 39 locations allows identifying the granulometric distribution, providing evidences of 4 sequences of 1 to 3 ridges. Most of the material seems to be reworked from a periglaciar till. The interpretation emphasizes beach ridge construction during relatively warm climate, and shoring iceberg preventing ridge formation during cold periods. This occurs in the framework of an isostatic postglacial uplift allowing the progressive mobilization of periglaciar material.

[Manuscript]