Glacial history of the NE Antarctic Peninsula region over centennial to millennial timescales

当冰川和冰盖融化时，它们会向海洋释放大量的淡水。向海洋释放淡水不仅使海平面上升，而且影响深海环流，从而影响区域气候。在地球上最大的淡水储备地南极大陆，冰川被巨大的冰架从海洋中缓冲出来。当冰川到达海平面时，这些冰架就形成了，并扩展形成了一个漂浮或接地的冰架。最近媒体对20世纪世纪南极冰架崩塌的报道引起了世界的关注，有报道说，由于全球气温上升，许多冰架，特别是南极半岛周围的冰架，现在正在变得不可持续。在这种背景下，我们必须了解南极冰川和冰架在过去、现在和未来的行为。因此，该项目的目的是重建南极半岛冰盖在第四纪（过去200万年）的轮廓和演变。我们将使用各种不同的方法来完成这项工作，包括从卫星图像和实地绘制冰川和相关地貌;从冰碛中收集岩石样本，用宇宙成因同位素测年法测定年代;并将我们在陆地上的证据与以前记录南极半岛冰盖过去波动的海上岩心研究进行比较。获得南极半岛冰盖的生长和衰退时期的时间将使我们能够重建这个冰块以前的波动，从而对其未来可能的行为作出预测。我们也将能够得出结论，南极冰盖周围的冰架是否在过去已经崩溃。

When glaciers and ice sheets melt, they release large volumes of fresh water into the oceans. The release of fresh water into the oceans not only raises sea level but also influences deep sea circulation and therefore regional climate. On the Antarctic continent, the largest freshwater store on the planet, glaciers are bufferered from the oceans by large ice shelves. These ice shelves form when glaciers reach sea level and spread out to form a floating or grounded shelf. Recent media coverage of Twentieth Century Antarctic ice shelf collapse has focused the world's attention on this topic and it has been suggested that many ice shelves, particularly around the Antarctic Peninsula, are now becoming unsable as a resut of global temperature rise. Against this background, it is important that we understand the behaviour of Antarctic glaciers and ice shelves in the past, present and future. The aim of this project is therefore to reconstruct the outline and evolution of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet through the Quaternary Period (the last two million years). We will do this using a variety of different methods including mapping of glaciers and associated landforms from satellite imagery and in the field; collecting samples of rock from glacial moraines for dating with cosmogenic isotope dating; and comparing our evidence on land to previous studies from offshore cores that record past fluctuations of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet. Obtaining dates for the timing of periods of growth and decay of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet will enable us to reconstruct the former fluctuations of this ice mass and therefore to make predictions about its possibe future behaviour. We will also be in a position to draw conclusions about whether or not the ice shelves surrounding the Antarctic Ice Sheet have collapsed in the past.