Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T10:11:10.639Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unusual coastal flood impacts in Salmon Valley, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

Paul K. Dayton ,
Kamille Hammerstrom Open the ORCID record for Kamille Hammerstrom [Opens in a new window] ,
Shannon C. Jarrell ,
Stacy Kim ,
Walter Nordhausen ,
D.J. Osborne  and
Simon F. Thrush
Paul K. Dayton*
Affiliation:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, mail code 0227, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Kamille Hammerstrom
Affiliation:
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, 8272 Moss Landing Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA
Shannon C. Jarrell
Affiliation:
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, mail code 0227, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Stacy Kim
Affiliation:
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, 8272 Moss Landing Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA
Walter Nordhausen
Affiliation:
European Maritime Safety Agency, Praça Europa 4, Cais do Sodré, 1249-206, Lisbon, Portugal
D.J. Osborne
Affiliation:
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039, USA
Simon F. Thrush
Affiliation:
Institute of Marine Science, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Large floods bringing significant sediments into the coastal oceans have not been observed in Antarctica. We report evidence of a large flood event depositing over 50 cm of sediment onto the nearshore benthic habitat at Salmon Bay, Antarctica, between 1990 and 2010. Besides direct observations of the sedimentation, the evidence involves a debris flow covering old tyre tracks from the early 1960s, as well as evidence of a considerable amount of sediment transported onto the Salmon Creek delta. We believe that the flood was sourced from the Salmon Glacier and possibly the smaller Blackwelder Glacier. Such floods will be more common in the future and it is important to better understand their ecological impacts with good monitoring programmes.

Keywords

basal freezingbaseline monitoringcoastal ecologyice upliftsedimentation
Type
Biological Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , August 2016 , pp. 269 - 275
Check for updates
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cazenave, F., Zook, R., Carroll, D., Flagg, M. & Kim, S. 2011. Development of the ROV SCINI and deployment in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The Journal of Ocean Technology, 6, 40–58.Google Scholar
Chinn, T. & Mason, P. 2015. The first 25 years of the hydrology of the Onyx River, Wright Valley, Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Polar Record, 52, 16–65.Google Scholar
Dayton, P.K., Robilliard, G.A. & DeVries, A.L. 1969. Anchor ice formation in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, and its biological effects. Science, 163, 273–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denton, G.H. & Marchant, D.R. 2000. The geologic basis for a reconstruction of a grounded ice sheet in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, at the Last Glacial Maximum. Geografiska Annaler - Physical Geography, A82, 167–211.Google Scholar
Debenham, F. 1965. The genesis of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica. Journal of Glaciology, 5, 829–832.Google Scholar
Doran, P.T., McKay, C.P., Fountain, A.G., Nylen, T., McKnight, D.M., Jaros, C. & Barrett, J.E. 2008. Hydrological response to extreme warm and cold summers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, East Antarctica. Antarctic Science, 20, 499–509.Google Scholar
Foreman, C.M., Wolf, C.F. & Priscu, J.C. 2004. Impact of episodic warming events on the physical, chemical and biological relationships of lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Aquatic Geochemistry, 10, 239–268.Google Scholar
Gow, A.J., Weeks, W.F., Hendrickson, G. & Rowland, R. 1965. New light on the mode of uplift of the fish and fossiliferous moraines of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica. Journal of Glaciology, 5, 813–828.Google Scholar
Hall, B.L. & Denton, G.H. 2000. Radiocarbon chronology of Ross Sea drift, eastern Taylor Valley, Antarctica: evidence for a grounded ice sheet in the Ross Sea at the Last Glacial Maximum. Geografiska Annaler - Physical Geography, A82, 305–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, B.L., Denton, G.H., Heath, S.L., Jackson, M.S. & Koffman, T.N.B. 2015. Accumulation and marine forcing of ice dynamics in the western Ross Sea during the last deglaciation. Nature Geoscience, 8, 625–628.Google Scholar
Lewis, A.R., Marchant, D.R., Kowalewski, D.E., Baldwin, S.L. & Webb, L.E. 2006. The age and origin of the Labyrinth, western Dry Valleys, Antarctica: evidence for extensive middle Miocene subglacial floods and freshwater discharge to the Southern Ocean. Geology, 34, 513–516.Google Scholar
Lyons, W.B., Tyler, S.W., Wharton, R.A., McKnight, D.M. & Vaughn, B.H. 1998. A late Holocene desiccation of Lake Hoare and Lake Fryxell, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Antarctic Science, 10, 247–256.Google Scholar
Mercuri, G., Tatian, M., Momo, F., Fuentes, V. & Sahade, R. 2008. Massive input of terrigenous sediment into Potter Cover during austral summer and the effects on the bivalve Laternula elliptica: a laboratory experiment. In Wienncke, C., Herreyra, G.A., Abele, D. & Marenssi, S., eds. The Antarctic ecosystem of Potter Cove, King-George Island (Isla 25 de Mayo) synopsis of research performed 1999–2006 at the Dallmann Laboratory and Jubany Station. Bremerhaven: Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, 111–117.Google Scholar
Miller, M.F., Fan, Z. & Bowser, S.S. 2015. Sediments beneath multi-year sea ice: deliver by deltaic and eolian processes. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 85, 301–314.Google Scholar
Murray, K.T., Miller, M.F. & Bowser, S.S. 2013. Depositional processes beneath coastal multi-year sea ice. Sedimentology, 60, 391–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, H.T. 1965. Anomalous erosional topography in Victoria Land. Science, 148, 941–942.Google Scholar
Speden, I.G. 1960. Post-glacial terraces near Cape Chocolate, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 3, 203–217.Google Scholar
Swithinbank, C. 1970. Ice movement in the McMurdo Sound area of Antarctica. In Gow, A.J., Keeter, C., Langway, C.C. & Weeks, W.F., eds. International Symposium on Antarctic Glaciological Exploration, 1968. Publication 86 of the International Association of Scientific Hydrology. Gentbrugge: Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, 472–487.Google Scholar
Torre, L., Servetto, N., Eory, M.L., Momo, F., Tatian, M., Abele, D. & Sahade, R. 2012. Respiratory responses of three Antarctic ascidians and a sea pen to increased sediment concentrations. Polar Biology, 35, 1743–1748.Google Scholar
Tsai, V.C. & Rice, J.R. 2010. A model for turbulent hydraulic fracture and application to crack propagation at glacier beds. Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface, 115, 10.1029/2009JF001474.Google Scholar
Wilson, A.T. 1964. Evidence from chemical diffusions of a climatic change in the McMurdo Dry Valley 1,200 years ago. Nature, 201, 176–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar