LATE CENOZOIC GLACIAL HISTORY OF THE ROSS EMBAYMENT, ANTARCTICA

Knowledge of the Cenozoic terrestrial and marine glacial history of Antarctica has been developed through studies of on-land surface outcrops and subsurface drillcores; and through examination of drillcores and piston cores obtained from a variety of offshore marine geological settings. These field and laboratory endeavors have been a major target of the Antarctic earth science community for more than thirty years. The Ross Sea sedimentary basins, including the Byrd basin (West Antarctica), Wilkes and Pensacola basins (East Antarctica), and the Transantarctic Mountains provide significant data on the Cenozoic glacial record; a record that has been traced back to at least 38 Ma (close to the Eocene-Oligocene boundary). This paper reviews the Late Cenozoic history of the Transantarctic Mountains and flanking sedimentary basins with emphasis on the debate between the 'stabilist' view of Antarctic ice sheet history (see Clapperton and Sugden, 1990) and our favored multi-glacial dynamic ice sheet model.