Title: Numerical modeling of the stability of the George V Land (East Antarctica) continental margin: interplay between glacio-isostatic adjustment and ice sheet dynamics over the past Late Pleistocene interglacials.

Contacts: ldesantis - at - ogs.it / fcolleoni - at - ogs.it / mpet - at - norceresearch.no

PhD Programme: Polar Science of the University of Venice, Italy: https://www.unive.it/web/en/182/home

Curriculum:  Ocean and Cryosphere

Where the work will be carried out: Trieste (Italy), with visitings in Urbino (Italy), and in Norway 

Co-supervisors: Laura De Santis, Michele Petrini, Paolo Stocchi, Florence Colleoni

 

More info:
Geological archives and morphological evidence of the George V Land continental margin (East Antarctica) in front of the Cook ice shelf and Ninnis glacier suggest that the ice sheet over the Wilkes Subglacial Basin (WSB) has been one of the most active of East Antarctic sectors through its glaciological history. Rare geophysical, glaciological, oceanographical, geological and geographical hampers a proper assessment of the instability potential of this area both in the past and in the future. Existing stratigraphic and multi-beam data reveal a complex continental shelf-to-slope dynamics with turbiditic deposits and large marine sediment slides that may result from the interactions between the bathymetry, the ice sheet dynamics, and the glacio-isostatic adjustment. We would like to test whether or not the complex geometry of sediment deposits observed in this area may have been caused by the glacio-isostatic adjustment of the continental margin during the Antarctic ice sheet advance and retreat in the WSB since the Last Glacial Maximum and during the Late Pleistocene transitions from glacials to interglacials (MIS 11 and MIS 5). Those interglacials present different characteristics: MIS 11 is a long but not that warm interglacial and MIS 5 is a short but intense interglacial. The Ph.D. candidate will use, in an iterative framework, a series of numerical models integrating the ice sheet dynamics and glacio-isostatic adjustment for both periods.