Direct constraints on Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet grounding events between 5.12 and 7.94 Ma

How has the Antarctic Ice Sheet responded to or influenced global climate change? This simple question has been difficult to address because the long-term records of the ice sheet's fluctuations are poorly constrained with geologic data from Antarctica. Thus studies to date have not convincingly established how specific Antarctic Ice Sheet events correlate with climatic, eustatic, or other phenomena known from low-latitude and deep-sea records. This study focused on documenting the direct record of ice sheet advance and retreat to the Antarctic Peninsula's shelf edge. On the peninsula's outer shelf, seismic reflectors interpreted to be subglacial unconformities were correlated with published results from Ocean Drilling Program Leg 178. Lithologic and chronologic control at two drill sites provided ground truth for the seismic interpretation and the timing of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet grounding events. This synthesis showed that grounded ice advanced to the shelf edge on at least 12 occasions between 5.12 and 7.94 Ma.