Reconstructing Eocene Antarctic river drainage from provenance analysis of Amundsen Sea embayment sediments.

ABSTRACT: Sedimentary records can illuminate relationships between the climate, topography, and glaciation of West Antarctica by revealing its Cenozoic topographic and paleoenvironmental history. Eocene fluvial drainage patterns have previously been inferred using geochemical provenance data from an ~44- to 34-million year deltaic sandstone recovered from the Amundsen Sea Embayment. One interpretation holds that a low-relief, low-lying West Antarctic landscape supported a >1500-kilometer transcontinental river system. Alternatively, higher-relief topography in central West Antarctica formed a drainage divide between the Ross and Amundsen seas. Here, zircon U-Pb data from Amundsen Sea Embayment sediments are examined alongside known regional bedrock provenance signatures. These analyses suggest that

SUBMITTER: Marschalek JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12693975 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature