Facies analysis and sequence stratigraphy of CRP-2/2A, Victoria Land basin, Antarctica

The Oligocene to Quaternary succession encountered in CRP-2/2A is divided into twelve recurrent lithofacies (some of which have been subdivided further), reflecting a range of marine, glacimarine and possibly subglacial environments of sediment accumulation. A cyclical vertical arrangement of lithofacies was noted throughout the core, and is used as the basis for a sequence stratigraphic analysis. Twenty-four sequences are recognised, each of which begins with a Sequence Boundary (Glacial Surface of Erosion), and each is interpreted to record a cycle of glacial advance and retreat with associated changes in relative sea-level. During at least some of these cycles, ice is interpreted to have extended as far as and seaward of the drill-site. A recent reinterpretation of seismic reflection data by Henrys et al. (this volume) permits the first correlation between seismic reflection records and the stratigraphic surfaces identified herein. All but one of the reflectors recognised correspond to sequence boundaries, and most reflectors correspond to the base of thin, truncated and amalgamated sequences. Additionally, three thick and relatively complete sequences (9 to 11) are identified individually by seismic reflectors. The major surfaces of omission in CRP-2/2A, identified from a variety of evidence, correspond to changes in cross-sectional geometry in the seismic records, and in the case of the unconformity at 307 mbsf can be interpreted as recording the onset of a phase of active tectonic subsidence associated with half-graben development, bounded by periods of more uniform, slower, possibly thermal subsidence. Possible controls on cyclicity are discussed, and include long-term eustatic cycles, Milankovitch frequency cycles, and more local climatic and/or tectonic events. The analysis allows the recognition and separation of tectonic from climatic (?glacio-eustatic) controls on the Cainozoic stratigraphy of the McMurdo Sound regio

Sequence stratigraphy of the Nukumaruan Stratotype\ud (Pliocene-Pleistocene, c. 2.08–1.63 Ma), Wanganui Basin,\ud New Zealand

Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene (c. 2.08—1.63 Ma) strata exposed in coastal cliffs along Nukumaru and Ototoka beaches near Wanganui, between the top of the Nukumaru Limestone and the base of the Butlers Shell Conglomerate, comprise 11 depositional sequences of a total thickness of c. 86 m. The sequences consist predominantly of silicilclastic shoreline facies. Non-marine facies (including palaeosols), and a variety of shallow-marine shellbed facies, are also represented. Patterns in facies composition and sequence architecture reveal three sequence motifs (Maxwell, Nukumaru, and Birdgrove) that represent progressively increasing maximum palaeowater depths within a broadly basin-margin palaeogeographic setting. The sequence motif changes systematically up section and records a lower order tectonic influence on accommodation that has modulated the stacking patterns of individual sequences. Correlation of the sequences with oxygen isotope stages 77–57 is achieved using the basin-wide Ototoka tephra, and indicates that the sequences accumulated in response to obliquity driven (41 k.y. duration) glacio-eustatic sea-level oscillations. Correlation of the Nukumaru coast sequences with other sections along basin strike, and the global oxygen isotope record indicates that (i) 500 k.y. (δ18O stages MIS 56–34) is missing at the unconformity between the Nukumaruan and overlying Castlecliffian stratotypes on the Wanganui coast, and (ii) the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary lies within sequence NC7 at the base of the Lower Maxwell Formation

The middle Pleistocene Merced-2 and -3 sequences from Ocean Beach, San Francisco

The Merced Formation comprises a 2-km-thick shallow marine and non-marine succession that was deposited in a small transtensional basin along the San Andreas Fault during the late Pliocene to middle Pleistocene. The sediments dip between 10° and 80° to the northeast, and are locally disrupted by small faults. During tilting, the beds have been rotated into subparallelism with the San Andreas Fault zone, splays of which bound the outcrop belt of Merced sediments to both the southwest and northeast. The Merced Formation contains more than 20 transgressive–regressive sedimentary rhythms (cyclothems, or sequences) that are generally between 40 and 120 m thick, and which were deposited mostly during interglacial time, under the influence of rising, highstand and early falling sea levels. Sequences Merced-2 [units M1–N of Soc. Econ. Paleontol. Mineral., Field Guidebook 3 (1984) 1] and Merced-3 (units O–P), though in fault contact, comprise typical Plio-Pleistocene shallow water cyclothems. The Merced-2 Sequence is 22+ m thick, and comprises a sandy and shelly transgressive systems tract, including a basal Type A shellbed, an in situ Type B mid-cycle shellbed, and a highstand systems tract of massive siltstone. The Merced-3 Sequence is 47 m thick, and comprises a basal compound shellbed, a thin highstand systems tract siltstone, and a sand-rich regressive systems tract. The RST comprises distal shoreface sands with an abundant in situ molluscan fauna, and upper shoreface and back-beach trough cross-bedded sands and pebbly sands. The top of the Merced-3 cycle comprises a beach sand capped by a palaeosol and lignite (the “Beetle Bed”), which together mark the subaerial exposure of the site during the ensuing glacial sea-level lowstand. Analysis of 10Be across the Merced-3 Sequence shows major peaks, indicative of sedimentation starvation, in the basal transgressive systems tract shellbed and in the capping lignite of the Beetle Bed. Smaller 10Be peaks are associated with a shellbed that is inferred to represent winnowing at the foot of the shoreface, and with a minor exposure surface that delimits a small paracycle in the top of the sequence. Otherwise, 10Be abundances decline regularly across the Merced-3 Sequence, consistent with an increasing sedimentation rate as shoreface progradation, and regression, progressed. The character of cycles Merced-2 and Merced-3 respectively resembles the Seafield and Rangitikei sequence motifs described from similar Plio-Pleistocene sediments in New Zealand. The cycles are of mid-Pleistocene age, and were probably deposited during interglacial oxygen isotope stages 21 and 19, respectively

Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE) Research Initiative

The Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE) project is a new international research initiative to study the climate and glacial history of Antarctica by linking climate and ice sheet modeling studies with geophysical surveys and geological studies on and around the Antarctic continent (Fig. 1). The rationale for the ACE programme, outlined herein, was developed and refined, before, during and after the Antarctic Earth Science Symposium in Erice, Italy, in September 2001 (Cooper et al., 2002, Florindo et al., 2003)