Late Neogene shift from polythermal to cold polar conditions of the Antarctic ice sheet indicated by glacial stratigraphy and sea-ice history

Discussions on the Neogene history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet center on the age of the switch from a 'dynamic' mode (polythermal) to the modern, 'stable' mode (cold-polar) of Antarctic glaciation. Interpretations derived from landscape evolution, ash deposits and polar desert pavements in the Dry Valley region support a persistent cold-polar climate by middle Miocene time. In contrast, interpretations based on glacigene strata of the Sirius Group in the Transantarctic Mts. and Pagodroma Group of the Prince Charles Mts. support the persistence of a dynamic, polythermal ice sheet until the late Pliocene. Marine sediments on the continental shelf preserve a record of sea-ice history, as indicated by sea-ice diatom assemblages, that bears on the timing of the switch in glacial regime. Through most of the Late Neogene and into the late Pliocene, the sea-ice diatom flora was weakly developed to absent. The reduced influence of sea-ice during the Late Neogene would impact the terrestrial glacial regime by lowered albedo of the ocean surface and higher ocean to atmospheric heat and moisture transfer, both of which would result in prolonged regional warming and polythermal ice. This paper will review the history of Neogene sea-ice and present stratigraphic evidence on characteristics of glacigene deposition in terrestrial and glacimarine environments during the Miocene and Pliocene, which suggest deposition by an ice sheet of quite different character than the present ice sheet, and a glacial regime of significant erosion and deposition. In situ marine fossils of the Pagodroma Group indicate that this warmer than present climate and polythermal character of the East Antarctic ice sheet continued into the Pliocene. The floating ice margin retreated up the Lambert Valley by as much as 300 km south of the present limit, where distal glacimarine facies deposited diatomaceous mud. The grounding zone of the paleo-Lambert Glacier/Amery Ice Shelf system fluctuated across a distance greater than 600 km during the Neogene, from a position on the continental shelf edge in Prydz Bay to the inner reaches of the Lambert/Amery Embayment. Glacigene deposits of the Sirius and Pagodroma groups provide direct evidence of the polythermal character of Late Neogene Antarctic ice sheets. The appearance of the modern sea-ice diatom community as dominant elements in marine sediments on the Antarctic shelf may provide the best proxy evidence for dating the transition to the present cold-polar glacial conditions.