Marschalek, James W;
van de Flierdt, Tina;
Siddoway, Christine S;
Thomson, Stuart N;
Paxman, Guy JG;
Jamieson, Stewart SR;
Conrad, Ethan;
... Vermeesch, Pieter; + view all
(2025)
Reconstructing Eocene Antarctic river drainage from provenance analysis of Amundsen Sea embayment sediments.
Science Advances
, 11
(50)
, Article eaea2373. 10.1126/sciadv.aea2373.
Preview |
Text
sciadv.aea2373.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Sedimentary records can illuminate relationships between the climate, topography, and glaciation of West Antarctica by revealing its Cenozoic topographic and paleoenvironmental history. Eocene fluvial drainage patterns have previously been inferred using geochemical provenance data from an ~44– to 34–million year deltaic sandstone recovered from the Amundsen Sea Embayment. One interpretation holds that a low-relief, low-lying West Antarctic landscape supported a >1500-kilometer transcontinental river system. Alternatively, higher-relief topography in central West Antarctica formed a drainage divide between the Ross and Amundsen seas. Here, zircon U-Pb data from Amundsen Sea Embayment sediments are examined alongside known regional bedrock provenance signatures. These analyses suggest that all observed provenance indicators in the Eocene sandstone derive from West Antarctic rocks. This implies that a local river system flowed off a West Antarctic drainage divide, helping constrain the mid-Late Eocene evolution of West Antarctic topography with implications for the history of rifting and the characteristics of sediments infilling interior basins.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Reconstructing Eocene Antarctic river drainage from provenance analysis of Amundsen Sea embayment sediments |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1126/sciadv.aea2373 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aea2373 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10218954 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
