Greenhouse to Icehouse Antarctic Paleoclimate and Ice History from George V Land and Adélie Land Shelf Sediments

Along the George V and Adélie Land continental shelf of East Antarctica, shallowly-buried strata contain a record of Antarctica's climate and ice history from the lush forests of the Eocene greenhouse to the dynamic ice sheet margins of the Neogene. Short piston cores and dredges have recovered Early Cretaceous and Eocene organic-rich sediment at the seabed, and in 2010, IODP Expedition 318 recovered earliest Oligocene and early Pliocene subglacial and proglacial diamictites. However, challenging ice and drilling conditions from the JOIDES Resolution on the shelf resulted in poor core recovery and sites had to be abandoned before the stratigraphic targets could be reached. Therefore, in a new IODP drilling proposal submitted earlier this year, we propose to use the MeBo sea bed drill for improved core recovery and easier access to the shelf, and drill a stratigraphic transect of shallow (~80m) holes. To investigate the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet in this sector, we target strata above and below regional erosional and downlap surfaces to date and characterize major episodes of ice sheet advance and retreat. These direct records of ice extent on the shelf can be set in the context of Southern Ocean records of temperature, ice-rafted debris (IRD) and latitudinal fluctuations of the opal belt, and hence we can relate ice sheet evolution to paleoclimate conditions. Targets include possible late Eocene precursor glaciations, the Eocene/Oligocene boundary erosion surface, Oligocene and Miocene ice extents, and ice margin fluctuations in the Pliocene. At the Cretaceous and Eocene proposed sites, marine and terrestrial temperature proxies and palynological records will provide information on high-latitude paleoenvironments and pole-equator temperature gradients. Here we present existing data from the area and the proposed new drill sites. The ice and climate history of the George V and Adélie Land margin can provide warm-world scenarios to help understand ice sheet instability in analogous future warm climates.