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Antarctic Ocean-Floor Fossils: Their Environments and Possible Significance As Indicators of Ice Conditions' CHARLES W

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Antarctic Ocean-Floor Fossils: Their Environments and Possible Significance As Indicators of Ice Conditions' CHARLES W Antarctic Ocean-Floor Fossils: Their Environments and Possible Significance as Indicators of Ice Conditions' CHARLES W. THOMAS ABSTRACT: Seven Antarctic marine environments are examined with respect to their geology and to the skeletal remains of marine microorganisms. While all assemblages live in the same water mass, they vary significantly from place to place. Geology and oceanography of each locality appear to produce less effect upon the character of populations than do topography and bay ice. The latter features sug­ gest a possible use of fossils as indicators of conditions of bay ice. DURING THEESTABLISHMENT by the U. S. temperatures, from - l. OO°C to -1.85°C. The Navy of permanent scientific bases in the Ant­ surface current attains velocities as high as 3 arctic, from 1955 to 1957, coring and Orange knots (author's observation). Peel sampling of the ocean bottom was car­ ried out under the general supervision of Dr. THE STATIONS Willis 1. Tressler, Senior Oceanographer as­ signed to U. S. Naval Task Force 43. This Sampling was undertaken at the following subdivision of command was responsible for stations: the N avy's commitment in Antarctica. The Bay of W hales: In 1929 (when the Gould author of this report was Chief of Staff. material was collected), the Bay of Whales General areas of ocean-bottom sampling con­ was an indentation in the Ross Ice Shelf 13 sidered in this paper are: Ross Barrier, Me­ miles long by 5 miles wide. During its life Murd o Sound, Hallett Inlet, Robertson Bay, the embayment's shape and dimensions were Sabrina Coast, and Knox Coast. During the constantly changing. As far as anyone knows, period of this study the Bay of Whales, once bay ice was swept out of the bay every year. carved in the Ross Ice Shelf, was not extant, Breakup generally occurred in January or Feb­ having been erased by iceberg-calving some ruary when winds produced waves which en­ time between 1947 and 1954. Since it was not tered the bay and cracked the ice.The Gould possible to carry out sampling there, the Gould collection of sediments was made at 78°34'S, material, collected from the Bay of Whales in 163°48'W in 548 m of water. The outer limits 1929 and analyzed by W arthin (1934), is of the Ross Ice Shelf are known to fluctuate considered in this paper. (Thomas, 1960) and an embayment (Discovery The region represented in Gould's sampling Inlet) once occupied the area where the sam­ is from the Bay of Whales to the Knox Coast pling was made. However, this location now (Clark Peninsula) (Fig. 1). This sector en­ generally features hummocky sea ice during the compasses ca. 2,100 miles of the periphery of greater part of the year. It is free of fast ice Antarctica, extending through ca. 90° of longi­ during the summer months. tude. This continental periphery is washed by Arrival Bay: This is a cove in Ross Island the Circumpolar Countercurrent, an easterly on the eastern side of McMurdo Sound. It is current generated by prevailing winds and di­ separated from Winter Quarters Bay (where rected by Coriolis force. Surface temperatures Scott's "Discovery" was frozen in. for two range from - 1.62°C to - 2.13°C; bottom years) by Hut Point. Ross Island is of Tertiary orogeny and consists chiefly of beds of lava 1 Paper presented at the Eleventh Pacific Science and tuff. Mt. Erebus, an active volcano, is Congress, Tokyo, 1966. Hawaii Institute of Geo­ physics Contribution No. 195. ·Manuscript received situated on the northwest side and Mt. Terror October 18, 1966. (now extinct) on the northeast side. There 45 46 PACI FIC SCIENCE, Vol. XXII, January 1968 ANTARCTICA SEA BOTTOM SEDIMENT SAMPLING STATIONS I BayofWhales 2 Ross Barrier 3 Arrival Boy 4 Cape Hallet! 5 Robertson Boy 6 Sabrina Coast 7 Clark Peninsula 1800---------- ------ +-- ---"*:----- ----'=--------;;:>__- -0. FIG. 1. Map showing sampling stations. are several vestigial cinder cones on the island. penguins (Carl Eklund, Scientific Adviser for The bay ice does not renew itself perennially. the U. S. Department of Defense, personal For this reason the U. S. Naval Air Facility was communication) . It is here that the U. S.-New located at Hut Point, where heavy aircraft Zealand Scientific Base is located. In 1956 bay could land on the bay ice the year around. The ice was moving out of the inlet on the eleventh sample from this location was collected in 46 of February. In 1957, breakup of the bay ice m of water two days after the icebreakers occurred a month earlier, due no doubt to ice­ "Glacier" and "Northwind" removed bay ice breaker preparation of a staging area at the of 5-m thickness. entrance. On January 5, 1957 bay ice exceeded Cape Hallett: (72° 18'S, 170020'E). The 3 m in depth throughout the length of the inlet. cape headland (elevation ca. 1,500 m) con­ Dependability of the bay ice for aircraft opera­ sists of beds of lava and tuff cut by many tions most of the year was an importan t factor dikes and occasionally faulted. It forms the in its selection as a base site. The sample con­ east side of Hallett Inlet, which is 8 nautical sidered herein was collected near the mouth of miles long. The west side consists of Precam­ the inlet in 200 m of water. brian metasedimentaries which are only slightly Robertson Bay: This is an embayment 20 metamorphosed and cut by intrusives. From miles long at Cape Adare (71 °21'S , 170000'E). this side Mt. Sabine rises sheerly to an eleva­ The environment has been described by Priestly tion of 3,617 m , The mouth of the inlet is dis­ (1923). In brief, it resembles McMurdo Sound tinguished by a flat, triangular, raised beach and Hallett Inlet geomorphologically, in that beneath the cape headland. Hallett Beach serves it was formed by a fault. The east side is of seasonally as a rookery for an estimated 205,000 Tertiary origin and the west of earlier origin. Antarctic Ocean-Floor Fossils-THOMAS 47 On the east side lava beds are cut by dikes and water. Organic remains in bottom sediments sills, while on the west side metasedimentary were exclusively diatomaceous. beds are intruded and heavily folded. Ridley Beach, at the foot of Cape Adare, is DISCUSSION a larger-scale version of Hallett Beach and supports a correspondingly larger population An examination of sediment analyses (Tress­ of penguins . Borchgrevink wintered here in ler, 1957) shows the dominant material at 1898. The hut erected by him and used by each station : Kainan Bay (30 miles east of Bay Scott's northern party in 1912 is still intact. of Whales)-feldspar, 50%; Arrival Bay­ The sample was taken in 402 m of water silicaceous sponge spicules and small shell frag­ off Pressure Bay, on the west-central side of ments, 100%; Hallett Inlet-shells, 30%; Robertson Bay. According to Priestly and Robertson Bay-feldspar, 40%; Clark Penin­ Wri ght (1922) the ice in this location (as the sula-feldspar, 50% . name implies) is hummocky and unstable. No analysis was made of the Sabrina Coast Catastrophic breaks caused by violent winds material. and glacial activity create turbulent sea ice Table 1 shows the incidence of skeletal conditions. The present author steamed to the remains of microorganisms in each of the loca­ head of Robertson Bay in January, 1956 with­ tions sampled. out sighting a vestige of bay ice. At the same In his discussion of the Gould collection of time, the south part of McMurdo Sound and Bay of Whales sediments, Warthin (1934) Hallett Inlet were frozen solid. remarks, "Although foraminifera with secreted calcareous tests comprise one-sixth of the spe­ Sabrina Coast: The coast is an ice barrier cies, they make up only 7.2 percent of the throughout its length . No embayments of any individuals present. This condition is markedly consequence are carved in it. The pack ice is different from that found by the Terra N ova perennial, with consolidated fields of hum­ expedition on the western side of the Ross mocky ice persisting until November or Decem­ Sea where 60 percent of the species collected It ber. stays this way until April, when floes were calcareous." break up, and then coverage varies between The foraminifera listed in the table which close and loose pack. The sea bed was sam­ have calcareous tests comprise the following pled at 65°61'S, 119°21'E in a depth of 586 m. percentages of species and individuals at sta­ Clark Peninsula: This is a headland approxi­ tions indicated: mately 3 miles long by 2 miles wide (maxi­ mum). It has been described in detail by P ERCE N TAGE PE RCENTAGE Hollin and Cameron (1961) . At the distal OF OF end of the peninsula the inland ice terminates CAL CAREO US CALC AREO US in a heavily morained area. Outcrops are basi­ STATION SP ECIES INDIVIDUALS cally highly metamorphosed sedimentaries with Ross Barrier 2.0 7.0 garnet inclusions. These rocks have been in­ Arrival Bay 67.0 92 .0 truded by granites and scored by dikes and Cape Hallett 82 .0 75.0 sills of hornblendite, muscovite, and olivine, Robertson Bay 30.0 25.0 and by orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars. Sabrina Coast 33.0 35.0 Ice conditions at Vincennes Bay, wherein Ostracod carapaces were present only in the Clark Peninsula is located, are said to be turbu­ Arrival Bay and Cape Hallett sediments. Radio­ lent with catastrophic breaks often producing larian skeletons, on the other hand, wereab­ open water in the winter.
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