Ocean Drilling Program: Prydz Bay - Clasts of the Cenozoic Glacial Deposits, Glacial Ice Derivation and Hidden East Antarctic Geology

More information can be obtained from the Ocean Drilling Program website. The data obtained from the drilling is available on the Ocean Drilling Program website (see Download Paleontology Data). From the abstract of one of the papers: During Leg 119 of the Ocean Drilling Program, between December 1987 and February 1988, six holes were drilled in the Kerguelen Plateau, southern Indian Ocean, and five in Prydz Bay at the mouth of the Amery Ice Shelf, on the East Antarctic continental shelf.

The Prydz Bay holes, reported here, form a transect from the inner shelf to the continental slope, recording a prograding sequence of possible Late Palaeozoic to Eocene to Quaternary glacially dominated sediments. This extends the known onset of large-scale glaciation of Antarctica back to about 36-40 million years ago, the sedimentary record suggesting that a fully developed East Antarctic Ice Sheet reached the coast at Prydz Bay at this time, and was more extensive than the present sheet.

Subsequent glacial history is complex, with the bulk of sedimentation in the outer shelf taking place close to the grounding line of an extended Amery Ice Shelf. However, breaks in the record and intervals of no recovery may hide evidence of periods of glacial retreat.