Evidence from Ice-Rafted Debris and Sediment Provenance for a Dynamic East Antarctic Ice Sheet During the Mid-Miocene Climate Transition

The Antarctic ice sheets underwent a major expansion during the Mid-Miocene Climate Transition, around 14 Ma, lowering eustatic sea level by perhaps 50m, based on evidence from benthic oxygen isotope records and sea level indicators. However, direct evidence of changes in the ice sheet is limited to sites in or close to the Transantarctic Mountains. Here we present evidence for ice sheet change from two widely separated sites offshore of East Antarctica, IODP Site U1356, Wilkes Land, and ODP Site 1165, Prydz Bay. Between 14.1 and 13.8 Ma at these sites, episodic pulses of ice-rafted debris (IRD), including dropstones, were deposited in concentrations exceeding those in the rest of the Miocene. These repeated pulses of IRD-bearing icebergs indicate large and repeated advances and retreats of the ice sheet during the course of the transition to a larger and relatively more stable ice sheet. We conducted provenance analyses on the mid-Miocene IRD and sediments. At Site U1356, 40Ar/39Ar ages of ice-rafted hornblende grains show that a major ice drainage was situated along the inland part of the Mertz Shear Zone and its southward extension along the west side of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, while Nd isotope data from the terrigenous fine fraction show that the ice margin periodically expanded from high ground well into the Wilkes Subglacial Basin during periods of ice growth. At Site 1165, 40Ar/39Ar on dropstones indicate provenance from both the Lambert Glacier region and the part of Wilkes Land that contains the Aurora Subglacial Basin. The two sites provide a direct record of repeated collapse and re-growth of ice in at least two of East Antarctica's main drainage basins during the mid-Miocene climate transition. We will set our ice-rafted debris and provenance evidence for cryosphere change in the context of mid-Miocene climate records.