Glacial Geology of the Icefields of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet near the Allan Hills, Victoria Land

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This investigation is designed to test important hypotheses regarding the East Antarctic ice sheet and the bedrock geology at its base: 1) Clay samples from supraglacial moraines (Elephant and Reckling Moraines) will be analyzed for microfossils (marine diatoms) in order to confirm the existence of a marine embayment on the continent in Neogene time and to determine the source of detrital feldspar grains by Rb-Sr dating; 2) Geochemical and isotopic data will be used to determine whether specimens of black acicular calcite from the Elephant Moraine are of hydrothermal origin and therefore indicate the former presence of hot springs under the East Antarctic ice sheet; and 3) The oxygen and hydrogen isotope composition of 135 ice samples collected along surveyed traverses are expected to indicate whether the icefields adjacent to the supraglacial moraines expose a stratigraphic cross-section of the East Antarctic ice sheet. *** //