Life below the ross ice shelf, antarctica

Samples and observations under 420 meters of ice and 430 kilometers from the open sea on the Ross Ice Shelf at a water depth of 597 meters revealed an unusual assemblage of benthic organisms. Scavenging amphipods, an isopod, and fish were present but a living infauna was absent. The observations may be accounted for by sampling or spatial bias, or by extremely low or fluctuating trophic resources.     

Ocean tide and waves beneath the ross ice shelf, antarctica

The ocean tide in the southern Ross Sea is principally diurnal. The tropic tide range (double amplitude) is between 1 and 2 meters, depending on the location, and is closely related to the local water-layer thickness. The range of the tropic tide is more than three times the range of the equatorial tide. Cotidal and coamplitude charts were made for the largest diurnal constituents, K(1) and O(1) and a provisional cotidal map was made for the semidiurnal constituent M(2). The amplitudes of the diurnal tide constituents are larger in the Ross Sea than in the adjacent southern Pacific Ocean, indicating the existence of a diurnal resonance related to the shape and depth of the sea. Waves related to ocean swell propagate into the ice-covered region from the northern Ross Sea. These waves have amplitudes near 1 centimeter, and periods in the range 1 to 15 minutes. The speed at which these waves travel is successfully predicted by flexural wave theory.     

Miocene glaciomarine sediments from beneath the southern ross ice shelf, antarctica

Glaciomarine sediments with middle Miocene microfaunal assemblages are exposed at the sea floor below the southern Ross Ice Shelf. Plio-Pleistocene sediments are not present. Post-Miocene glacial sediments may have been deposited but removed by relatively recent ice shelf grounding. A meager Recent microfauna is present in some core tops.     

The ross ice shelf project

A hole was drilled through the Ross Ice Shelf 450 kilometers from the barrier. Scientific sampling through this hole revealed a sparse population of crustaceans, fish, and microbial biomass. The seabed consists of mid-Miocene glaciomarine mud. Geothermal heat flow is average. Oceanographic data indicate an active circulation and melting at the base of the ice.     

Circulation and melting beneath the ross ice shelf

Thermohaline observations in the water column beneath the Ross Ice Shelf and along its terminal face show significant vertical stratification, active horizontal circulation, and net melting at the ice shelf base. Heat is supplied by seawater that moves southward beneath the ice shelf from a central warm core and from a western region of high salinity. The near-freezing Ice Shelf Water produced flows northward into the Ross Sea.     

Occurrence and metabolic activity of organisms under the ross ice shelf, antarctica, at station j9

Seawater samples below the Ross Ice Shelf were collected through an access hole at J9, approximately 400 kilometers from the Ross Sea, Antarctica. The 237-meter water column had sparse populations of bacteria (8.7 x 10(6) to 1.2 x 10(7) per liter), microplankters (10(2) to 10(3) per cubic meter), and zooplankters (10 to 20 per cubic meter) at the depths studied. Microbial biomass estimates from cellular adenosine 5'-triphosphate measurements were very low (10 to 150 nanograms of carbon per liter), comparable with values for the abyssal ocean. Microbial populations assimilated tritiated D-glucose, thymidine, uridine, and adenosine triphosphate at extremely low rates, comparable with deep-sea heterotrophic populations. Sediment samples had 10(7) to 10(8) bacteria per gram (dry weight), which were metabolically active as shown by respiration of uniformly labeled D-[(14)C]glucose. From this study it cannot be determined whether these organisms in the water column and sediments constitute a functioning food web.     

Fish, crustaceans, and the sea floor under the ross ice shelf

Baited traps and a camera lowered through the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, at a point 475 kilometers from the open Ross Sea and to 597 meters below sea level revealed the presence of fish, many amphipods, and one isopod. Biological or current markings were not evident on a soft bottom littered with subangular lumps. A fish was caught through a crevasse 80 kilometers from the shelf edge.     

Tritium and carbon-14 distributions in seawater from under the ross ice shelf project ice hole

The tritium and carbon-14 activities of seawater samples collected from 22 to 200 meters below the ice at the Ross Ice Shelf Project ice hole are reported. The tritium results show that the waters below the ice have exchanged with Ross Sea water since the advent of nuclear testing. The carbon-14 results indicate that waters in the upper layer exchange in time periods of less than 6 years. Measurements of these isotopes in seawater under the Ross Ice Shelf in McMurdo Sound show that this water has a different history.     

Kerogen recycling in the ross sea, antarctica

Analyses of the stable isotopes of the organic carbon and microscopic examination of the sediment particles suggest that up to 90 percent of the organic matter in Ross Sea sediments is derived from the igneous and ancient metamorphic and sedimentary rocks that are being glacially eroded on the Antarctic continent and transported seaward.     

Maceral, total organic carbon, and palynological analyses of ross ice shelf project site j9 cores

Analyses of macerals and total organic carbon indicate that the low organic content of core sediments from Ross Ice Shelf Project site J9 has been selectively reduced further, probably by postdepositional submarine oxidation. Palynological analysis revealed a reworked Paleogene dinocyst flora of low diversity (the transantarctic flora). This constitutes the most southerly dinocyst flora reported thus far. The antarctic distribution of the transantarctic flora supports the existence of a transantarctic strait during the Paleogene. The J9 sporomorph assemblage also is reworked and Paleogene in age.     

Episodic rifting of phanerozoic rocks in the victoria land basin, Western ross sea, antarctica

Multichannel seismic-reflection data show that the Victoria Land-basin, unlike other sedimentary basins in the Ross Sea, includes a rift-depression 15 to 25 kilometers wide that parallels the Transantarctic Mountains and contains up to 12 kilometers of possible Paleozoic to Holocene age sedimentary rocks. An unconformity separates the previously identified Cenozoic sedimentary section from the underlying strata of possible Mesozoic and Paleozoic age. Late Cenozoic volcanic rocks intrude into the entire section along the eastern flank of the basin. The Victoria Land basin is probably part of a more extensive rift system that has been active episodically since Paleozoic time. Inferred rifting and basin subsidence during Mesozoic and Cenozoic time may be associated with regional crustal extension and uplift of the nearby Transantarctic Mountains.     

Superheated ice formed by the freezing of superheated water

Water, superheated with respect to the vapor phase, has been made to freeze, thus forming ice that is also superheated with respect to the vapor. This phase transformation occurred at the extension of the melting curve below the triple point pressure.     

Lystrosaurus zone (triassic) fauna from antarctica

Tetrapod skeletons recently found in the Fremouw Formation in the Shackleton Glacier area, Transantarctic Mountains, include several forms that closely compare to South African species. Faunal similarities that confirm a close connection between Antarctica and Africa during the Triassic Period lend further support to the concept of Gondwanaland and continental drift.     

Phytoplankton bloom produced by a receding ice edge in the ross sea: spatial coherence with the density field

Measurements of chlorophyll, particulate carbon, and biogenic silica concentrations near a receding ice edge off the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica, indicated the presence of a dense phytoplankton bloom. The bloom extended 250 kilometers from the ice edge and was restricted to waters where the melting of ice had resulted in reduced salinity. The region involved was one of enhanced vertical stability, which may have favored phytoplankton growth, accumulation, or both. Epontic algae released from melting ice may have served as an inoculum for the bloom. Ratios of organic carbon to chlorophyll and biogenic silica to carbon were unusually high, resulting in high biogenic silica concentrations despite only moderately high chlorophyll levels.     

U.s. Geological survey core drilling on the atlantic shelf

The first broad program of scientific shallow drilling on the U.S. Atlantic continental shelf has delineated rocks of Pleistocene to Late Cretaceous age, including phosphoritic Miocene strata, widespread Eocene carbonate deposits that serve as reflective seismic markers, and several regional unconformities. Two sites, off Maryland and New Jersey, showed light hydrocarbon gases having affinity to mature petroleum. Pore fluid studies showed that relatively fresh to brackish water occurs beneath much of the Atlantic continental shelf, whereas increases in salinity off Georgla and beneath the Florida-Hatteras slope suggest buried evaporitic strata. The sediment cores showed engineering properties that range from good foundation strength to a potential for severe loss of strength through interaction between sediments and man-made structures.     

Widespread persistent thickening of the East Antarctic ice sheet by freezing from the base

An International Polar Year aerogeophysical investigation of the high interior of East Antarctica reveals widespread freeze-on that drives substantial mass redistribution at the bottom of the ice sheet. Although the surface accumulation of snow remains the primary mechanism for ice sheet growth, beneath Dome A, 24% of the base by area is frozen-on ice. In some places, up to half of the ice thickness has been added from below. These ice packages result from the conductive cooling of water ponded near the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountain ridges and the supercooling of water forced up steep valley walls. Persistent freeze-on thickens the ice column, alters basal ice rheology and fabric, and upwarps the overlying ice sheet, including the oldest atmospheric climate archive, and drives flow behavior not captured in present models.     

Iron-rich Basal sediments from the eastern equatorial pacific: leg 16, deep sea drilling project

Iron-rich sediments chemically similar to those forming at present on the crest of the East Pacific Rise have been found just above basement at widely separated drill sites in the eastern equatorial Pacific, including three sites of Leg 16 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. These sediments were probably formed when the basement was at the crest of this rise and have moved to their present location as a result of sea-floor spreading.     

Evolution of ocean temperature and ice volume through the mid-Pleistocene climate transition

Earth's climate underwent a fundamental change between 1250 and 700 thousand years ago, the mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT), when the dominant periodicity of climate cycles changed from 41 thousand to 100 thousand years in the absence of substantial change in orbital forcing. Over this time, an increase occurred in the amplitude of change of deep-ocean foraminiferal oxygen isotopic ratios, traditionally interpreted as defining the main rhythm of ice ages although containing large effects of changes in deep-ocean temperature. We have separated the effects of decreasing temperature and increasing global ice volume on oxygen isotope ratios. Our results suggest that the MPT was initiated by an abrupt increase in Antarctic ice volume 900 thousand years ago. We see no evidence of a pattern of gradual cooling, but near-freezing temperatures occur at every glacial maximum.     

Open channels in sea ice (leads) as ion sources

Open channels in sea ice may be acting as sources of atmospheric ions.