Submarine Glacial Landforms on the Cold East Antarctic Margin

The East Antarctic continental margin, which extends from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea (Fig. 1h), surrounds the largest and oldest ice mass on Earth; however, it has only been studied at a few locations because of its remoteness and persistent sea ice. The shelf is 100–150 km wide over most of its length but broadens where major crustal structures intersect it, such as in Prydz Bay (Fig. 1a) where the shelf is 200–300 km wide. This paper reviews what is known presently about the geomorphology of the best-studied sectors of the East Antarctic margin: the deep re-entrant of Prydz Bay and the narrower shelves of George V and Mac.Robertson Land (Fig. 1h). Only a small proportion of the East Antarctica shelf has been surveyed with multibeam bathymetry, so this review is also dependent on compilations of single-beam bathymetry, seismic-reflection profiles and side-scan sonar data. In particular, we use George V Digital Elevation Model (GVDEM, Beaman et al. 2011) and International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO; Arndt et al. 2013). The slope has been more widely studied, with large amounts of seismic-reflection data available (e.g. Kuvaas & Leitchenkov 1992; Escutia et al. 2000; Solli et al. 2007; Close et al. 2007). Fig. 1. ( a ) Prydz Bay and sub-Amery Ice Shelf bathymetry. (IBCSO v. 1.0; Arndt et al. 2013). ( b ) Long profile of Amery Ice Shelf from upstream of the modern grounding zone to the trough-mouth fan on the continental slope. VE×140. ( c ) Cross-section of Amery Ice Shelf valley at its southern end. VE×20. ( d ) Shaded-relief image of multibeam data collected by N. B. Palmer in 2001 (Leventer et al. 2005). The image covers the transition from streamlined bedrock to moulded basin sediment in the Svenner Channel. Image from GEOMAPAPP (www.geomapapp.org). ( e ) Seismic …