A Holocene volcanic knoll within a glacial trough, Antarctic Sound, northern Antarctic Peninsula

Abstract

Jaegyu Knoll is located in Antarctic Sound, between Trinity Peninsula and islands of the Joinville Island Group, on the northern Antarctic Peninsula (Fig. 1a). Jaegyu Knoll is interpreted as a Holocene submarine intraplate volcano based on its morphology, in situ observations such as bottom videos and high-resolution photographs (Quinones et al. 2005), a rock dredge that recovered fresh volcanic rock (Hatfield et al. 2004) and a measured geothermal anomaly (Hatfield et al. 2004). All aspects of the knoll are consistent with recent volcanic activity, which appears to have been persistent in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region from Mesozoic times to the present (e.g. Baker et al. 1973; Gonzalez-Ferran 1991; Gracia et al. 1997). The knoll, and at least two other smaller volcanic features in Antarctic Sound (Fig. 1a), lie within an overdeepened glacial trough that was presumably sculpted by ice during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 23–19 ka BP). Fig. 1. Jaegyu Knoll (63° 29′ 45″ S, 56° 26′ 45″ W) located on the seafloor of the Antarctic Sound glacial trough, northern Antarctic Peninsula. Jaegyu Knoll was discovered and mapped for the first time in 2001 and named in honour of the young Korean scientist Mr Jun Jaegyu who succumbed …