Glaciation of the continental shelves (part I)

Abstract

Over the past two decades, in no small part due to the author's efforts, considerable evidence has accumulated to indicate that a significant proportion of the total mass of the Pleistocene ice sheets lay on the continental shelves rather than on the continents per se. This fact has extremely far‐reaching implications for the whole area of mass and energy exchange between the atmosphere, the ice sheets and the ocean and for the rate and mechanisms of ice sheet formation and disintegration. The present study represents an overview of the present state of knowledge of these “marine”; ice sheets, sitting on the continental shelves. This first part provides a survey of all such ice sheets during the Wurm glaciation, in which the author examines the available evidence of the extent and thickness of such ice sheets. Particular attention is focused on the Antarctic Ice Sheet since not only were its “marine”; components more extensive during the Wurm, but since the West Antarctic Ice Sheet at the present time pro...