Highlights

The dynamics of ice sheets are markedly influenced by rapid flows of ice streams at their margins.  Cowan et al. use sediment micromorphology, stratigraphy, and geomorphology to unravel the history of Late Pleistocene glacial processes in the marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet.  The integrated results reveal the importance of “till pellets” that form in situ, within a deforming bed under an ice stream characterized by repeated cycles of bed freeze-thaw.  This understanding of the formation, deposition, and preservation of these sedimentary particles provides new insights into dynamics between the deformable bed and the ice stream and the stratigraphic record of ice-sheet dynamics.

Sedimentological Signature of A Deformable Bed Preserved Beneath An Ice Stream In A Late Pleistocene Glacial Sequence, Ross Sea, Antarctica by Ellen A. Cowan, Poul Christoffersen, and Ross D. Powell