Glacial erosion and deposition have shaped the Mertz Trough, East Antarctica, where seafloor grounding-zone wedges (GZWs) are associated with mega-scale glacial lineations (MSGLs) (McMullen et al. 2006). GZWs form along grounded glacial margins constrained by ice shelves during stillstands and consist of wedge-shaped glacially transported sediment (Powell & Domack 2002). MSGLs are parallel elongate bedforms that typically form in soft sediments beneath rapidly flowing ice streams (Clark 1993; Canals et al. 2000; Clark et al. 2003). They are found in glacial troughs, usually parallel to trough margins. MSGLs are generally 6 to >100 km long, 200–1300 m wide and spaced 0.3–5 km apart, crest-to-crest (Clark et al. 2003; McMullen et al. 2006).
Description
Mertz Trough is located perpendicular to George V coast of Wilkes Land, East Antarctica (Fig. 1a, b). Multibeam-bathymetric imagery reveals distinct features on the seafloor including parallel elongate ridge and groove pairs, two sinuous sediment mounds with streamlined bedforms on their surfaces, and depressions (Fig. 1c).
Multibeam-bathymetric image of the central Mertz Trough, East Antarctica. (a) Location of study area (red box; map from …
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Grounding-zone wedges and mega-scale glacial lineations in the Mertz Trough, East Antarctica
