Seismic stratigraphy of the Plio-Pleistocene Ross Island flexural moat-fill: a prognosis for ANDRILL Program drilling beneath McMurdo-Ross Ice Shelf

Abstract

Ross Island volcanic complex began forming with the emplacement of the basaltic shield volcanoes of Mt. Bird and Mt. Terror between ca. 4.6 and 1.3 Ma, though it has developed most significantly over the last 1 Ma during an eruptive phase resulting in the 3794-m-high composite vent of Mt. Erebus. Throughout this time, loading of the lithosphere at the southern end of the Terror Rift by the Ross Island volcanic pile has progressively depressed the crust, resulting in a subcircular flexural moat around the periphery of the island. Multichannel seismic reflection data collected from the McMurdo-Ross Ice Shelf (MRIS) reveal the stratigraphic architecture of the moat-fill on the southeastern side of Ross Island. The moat region has accommodated a well-stratified, regionally extensive sedimentary succession of at least 1.2 km below the seafloor in the deepest part of the depression. Three seismic stratigraphic units are identified that generally thicken and dip towards Ross Island and are bounded by angular (onlap) unconformities. We infer that the three units were deposited in accommodation space created during discrete phases of volcanic load-induced subsidence: 1. Unit III. Moderate to low-amplitude discontinuous reflectors are dislocated and tilted by normal faulting and interpreted to represent coarse-grained glacigenic and fine-grained marine sediments with likely intercalated volcanic ash. These strata may have started to accumulate during loading of the crust by Mt. Bird between ca. 4.6 and 3.8 Ma. 2. Unit II. Moderate to high-amplitude continuous reflectors that onlap Unit III and are interpreted to represent coarse-grained glacigenic and fine-grained marine sediments with likely intercalated volcanic ash. These strata are inferred to have accumulated in the crustal depression resulting from loading by Mt. Terror between ca. 1.8 and 1.3 Ma. 3. Unit I. Relatively continuous low-amplitude to seismically-opaque reflectors (Unit IB), onlap Unit II and grade upwards into moderate to high amplitude reflectors below the seafloor (Unit IA). Unit IB is interpreted to represent fine-grained pelagic marine sediments and volcanic ashes which may have accumulated during a phase of rapid subsidence at the initiation of Mt. Erebus loading between ca. 1.0 and 0.8 Ma. Unit IA is interpreted to represent progressive infilling of the flexural moat with more coarse-grained, probably glacigenic sediments during continuation of Mt. Erebus loading between ca. 0.8 and 0.2 Ma. These phases of load-induced subsidence may have periodically overdeepened the moat, making it likely that the sedimentary fill is relatively continuous and has largely escaped erosion by ice grounding during past glacial expansions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and the MRIS. The age relationships provided by radiometric dating of the various volcanic loads imply that the sediments here have the potential to provide a relatively continuous and high-resolution glacimarine record of the past behavior of the WAIS–MRIS and the climate history of the western Ross Sea region back to ∼5 Ma. This stratigraphic record is scheduled to be drilled by the ANDRILL Program in the austral summer of 2006. From the interpretation of seismic facies, we present a stratigraphic prognosis for the proposed drill site.