Sediment Cores from Beneath the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica

Two sediment cores collected from beneath the Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica describe physical sedimentation patterns. The cores, AM01b and AM02, comprise Holocene siliceous muddy ooze and provide indicators like lithology and diatom assemblages to infer sub-ice shelf sediment transport pathways. The dataset is hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling sub-ice shelf sediment transport pathways based on lithology and diatom assemblage indicators.
• Contrasting sedimentation patterns between sites of basal freezing and melting based on core descriptions.
• Reconstructing past current activity episodes based on inclined bedding and sediment composition intervals.
• Investigating the influence of baroclinic vs. barotropic circulation on sediment distribution beneath ice shelves.

Strengths

• Provides direct physical sediment cores from beneath a major Antarctic ice shelf, a rare data type.
• Includes contrasting samples from sites of basal freezing (AM01b) and basal melting (AM02).
• Uses multiple indicators: lithology, radiocarbon ages, diatom abundance, and diatom assemblages.

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Physical collection and analysis of sediment cores.

Time Range

Holocene, with one basal radiocarbon age of approximately 28,250 years BP.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 16:41:57.631622; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Beneath the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica (Prydz Bay region).