Study of Sediment, Glacier Ice and Silicate Spherules, Walcott Neve, Antarctica

这笔赠款支持对南极东部冰盖边缘的研究，这是一个非常敏感的地区，因为它的流动被冰下基岩脊打断。由此产生的冰原暴露出冰盖的一段地层，包括巨大时代的基冰，它消融形成冰上冰川。这项研究的目的包括：1)绘制比尔德莫尔冰川地区冰的表面高程和厚度图，以记录基岩地形对当地冰流模式的影响；2)根据系统采集的冰样的氧同位素组成，确定裸露冰层中更新世-全新世的界线；3)研究该地区冰上冰川中选定的碎屑，以获得有关东南极克拉通地质的信息；以及4)对研究区冰川沉积物中大量出现的硅酸盐球体进行地球化学、矿物学和同位素研究。

This grant supports a study of the margin of the East Antarctic ice sheet, a very sensitive area because its flow is disrupted by subglacial bedrock ridges. The resulting ice fields expose a stratigraphic section of the ice sheet including basal ice of great age which ablates to form supraglacial moraines. The objectives of this study include 1) mapping of the surface elevation and thickness of the ice in the Beardmore-Glacier area in order to document the effect of bedrock topography on local ice flow patterns: 2) identification of the Pleistocene- Holocene boundary in the exposed ice based on oxygen isotope compositions of systematically-collected ice samples; 3) study of selected clasts in supraglacial moraines of the area in order to obtain information about the geology of the East Antarctic craton; and 4) geochemical, mineralogical, and isotopic study of silicate spherules that occur in significant numbers in glacial sediment in the study area.