Monday, 27 August 2007
1.PS-20

Mineralogy of late Quaternary marine sediments from central Ross Sea: a provenance study

Annabella Nagi, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Siena, via Laterina 8, Siena, Italy and Giovanna Giorgetti, Department of Earth Sciences, Università di Siena, via Laterina 8, Siena, Italy.

The mineralogy of late-Quaternary sediments from seven cores collected in the Glomar Challenger Basin (central Ross Sea continental shelf) were determined to establish the sediment provenance and to reconstruct the ice stream paleo-flows and their possible variations from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to present. These cores were collected along directions longitudinal to the basin axis and parallel to the shelf break. The sedimentary successions are constituted by sub-glacial to glacio-marine sediment. Illite, smectites, chlorite are the main clay minerals; quartz, feldspars, pyroxenes and amphiboles are the main sand fraction components. Spatial and temporal variation in mineralogy of the clay and sand fractions allows us to understand possible variations of the source areas. Sediments probably have an East Antarctica provenance in the southern and western part of the basin; a West Antarctica provenance is supposed for northern-eastern sediments.

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