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Victoria University Antarctic Research Expedition Science and Logistics Reports 1996-97: VUWAE 41

1. Aims

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1. Aims

The aim of this event was to look at raised beaches along the Scott Coast from Cape Bernacchi to Dunlop Island. These features have developed since the last glacial maximum approx 18,000 years ago when the ice sheets were at their greatest extent. The weight of the overlying ice depressed the land which has been slowly rebounding after melting of the ice. While rebounding a series of beach ridges were formed.

One part of the project is to date the beach ridges and associated rock platforms by three different methods and obtaining their relative heights above sea level today. This will allow modelling of the volume and extent of the ice during the last glacial maximum.

To obtain a height above sea level today it is necessary to know where sea level was on the raised beach ridges. The second part of the project looks at the modern beach formation. Linking processes found here to features in the raised beaches should give an accurate position of sea level on the raised beaches.

The third part of the event was to use glacial striations, moraines and cosmogenic dating to work out whether the ice depressing this part of the coast came from an expansion of the Wilson Piedmont Glacier or an advancement of the Ross Ice Shelf onto the coastline.