Coastal glacial valley system in the Wood Bay (western Ross Sea, Antarctica)

In the context of the reinterpretation of marine seismic data in the Ross Sea being made for the Vilmap PNRA project, newly acquired higher resolution single channel seismic lines (IT02) allowed a detailed investigation of the Cenozoic glacial features present in the Wood Bay, coastal area of western Ross Sea between Cape Washington and Mariner/Borchgrevink Glaciers. The investigation focused on the dynamics of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, and, in particular, the local coastal glaciers that extend into the sea as ice tongues, contributing to drainage the East Antarctic Ice Sheet through the Transantarctic Mountains. The dynamics of the group of three valley and outlet glaciers, the Tinker Glacier, Aviator Glacier and Parker Glacier, is clearly shown in the investigated depositional features that include subglacial and proglacial progradational deposits, grounding zone wedges, a possible morainal bank complex, and in the erosional evidence of glacial unconformities and troughs.