Multibeam Bathymetry and Distribution of Clay Minerals on Surface Sediments of a Small Bay in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica

Jaewoo Jung,Heungsoo Moon,Joohan Lee,Young Kyu Park,Hyoung Jun Kim,Kiho Yang,Youngtak Ko,Sunghan Kim,Kyu-Cheul Yoo

doi:10.3390/min11010072

Abstract

The second Antarctic station of South Korea was constructed at Terra Nova Bay, East Antarctica, but local seafloor morphology and clay mineralogical characteristics are still not fully understood. Its small bay is connected to a modern Campbell Glacier, cliffs, and raised beaches along the coastline. Fourteen sampling sites to collect surface sediments were chosen in the small bay for grain size and clay mineral analyses to study the sediment source and sediment-transport process with multibeam bathymetry and sub-bottom profiles. Under the dominant erosional features (streamlined feature and meltwater channel), icebergs are the major geological agent for transport and deposition of coarse-sized sediments along the edge of glaciers in summer, and thus the study area can reveal the trajectory of transport by icebergs. Glacier meltwater is an important agent to deposit the clay-sized detritus and it results from the dominance of the illite content occurring along the edge of Campbell Glacier Tongue. The high smectite content compared to Antarctic sediments may be a result of the source of the surrounding volcanic rocks around within the Melbourne Volcanic Province.

Highlights

The Ross Sea is adjacent to the Southern Ocean and is bounded by the Antarctic continent to the South
The local seafloor morphology and mineralogical characteristics of Terra Nova Bay have never been reported, so we provide general geological information including new multibeam bathymetry, sub-bottom profiles (SBP), grain size, clay mineralogy, and full width at half maximum 10 Å peak of illite/muscovite (FWHM-10 Å) for future study based on the Antarctic station
The present study demonstrates a comprehensive understanding through geomorphological data, sedimentary sequences, grain size distributions, and clay mineralogy of surface sediments, where the second Antarctic station of South Korea was constructed

Summary

Introduction

The Ross Sea is adjacent to the Southern Ocean and is bounded by the Antarctic continent to the South. The Ross ice shelf, the largest ice shelf in Antarctica, is developed and distributed widely along the continental shelf [1]. The advance and retreat of the ice sheet caused by global climate change has had a significant impact on the depositional condition of the continental shelf [4]. The Ross Sea is an important area for such study as the largest ice sheet that discharges into the embayment [5]. Terra Nova Bay, Ross Sea, is a bay which is often ice free, lying from Cape Washington in the north to the Drygalski Ice Tongue in the south [6]

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Conclusion