Abstract
The faunal (foraminiferal and diatom abundance) and sedimentological analysis was carried out on two cores collected from a coastal lake in the Vestfold Hills region of Antarctica. Out of a couple of cores collected from the same lake, the one closer to the marine inlet, contained abundant foraminifera and the diatoms were dominant in the second core. The radiocarbon dating of the organic matter revealed that the sediments were inverted, with two sequences of younger sediments overlain by older sediments. The increased abundance of marine microfossils, including both the foraminifera and diatoms in inverted layers, suggests that the sediments were transported from the adjacent shelf. The transport from the shelf is further confirmed by the abundant presence of planktic foraminiferal shells in the sediments. The planktic foraminifera are relatively deeper dwellers and thus confirm the transport of material from relatively deeper water depths. The transport of older marine sediments from the nearby shelf, into the lake against gravity is inferred as a result of storm/cyclone. Two such past storm-cyclone events are inferred as the core includes two sets of inverted sediments. The study suggests that faunal and sedimentological analysis in conjunction with chronology can be applied to infer past instances of extreme events in the high latitude regions.
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