Late Paleozoic Ice Age glaciers shaped East Antarctica landscape
International audience; The erosion history of Antarctica is fundamental to our understanding of interlinks between climate and glacier dynamics. However, because of the vast polar ice sheet covering more than 99% of Antarctica land mass, the continental surface response to glacial erosion remains largely unknown. Over the last decade the subglacial topography of Antarctica has been imaged by airborne radar surveys. These studies revealed high and complex sub-glacial relief in the core of the East Antarctic shield, interpreted as resulting from rifting episodes and low long-term erosion rates, or repeated large-scale glacial retreats and advances. In East Antarctica, thermochronology studie…
Improved discrimination of subglacial and periglacial erosion using10Be concentration measurements in subglacial and supraglacial sediment load of the Bossons glacier (Mont Blanc massif, France)
Deciphering the complex interplays between climate, uplift and erosion is not straightforward and estimating present-day erosion rates can provide useful insights. Glaciers are thought to be powerful erosional agents, but most published ‘glacial’ erosion rates combine periglacial, subglacial and proglacial erosion processes. Within a glaciated catchment, sediments found in subglacial streams originate either from glacial erosion of substratum or from the rock walls above the glacier that contribute to the supraglacial load. Terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (TCN) are produced by interactions between cosmic ray particles and element targets at the surface of the Earth, but their concentration …