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You are in:  Home » Publications » Reports » Report 16 » Appendix 7

SCAR Report No 16,

Appendix 7

ANTARCTIC PENINSULA REGION
Peter Barker
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, United Kingdom

The last time the ANTOSTRAT Antarctic Peninsula Regional Working Group met was in 1993, in Cambridge. There, the first thing it did, in order to work effectively, was to split into 3 subgroups (one of which then split again). The RWG has been effective in promoting data syntheses and joint interpretations, but the scope of scientific problem that could be addressed by use of marine seismic reflection data was much broader than elsewhere around Antarctica, and the splits reflected that diversity of opportunity and interest.

The ANTOSTRAT-promoted ODP drilling proposal had a comparatively narrow focus on the regional contribution to glacial history and related processes, but the original breadth of opportunity is still there. In essence there are several potential fields of study, in addition to what will be extensively examined by ODP drilling, for example:

• pre-glacial palaeoclimate of the Antarctic Peninsula region
• the glacial/interglacial cycle in the particular enclosed environment of Bransfield Strait
• the dynamics of ridge subduction along the Pacific margin
• active back-arc extension in Bransfield Strait
• subduction dynamics at the South Shetland Trench
• active strike-slip plate motion, along the South Scotia Ridge and Shackleton Fracture Zone
• the distribution and origins of bottom-simulating reflectors on seismic reflection profiles

We should consider the possibility also that the ODP drilling, and an ANTIME interest in modern depositional processes, will direct attention to other aspects of glacial margin evolution. For example, some processes important to glacial sediment transport may be only poorly understood. In general, we should be agreed that, whatever the situation in other regions, seismic reflection investigation of the Antarctic Peninsula margin is now well beyond the reconnaissance stage, and insights are more likely to come from different and more detailed studies.

There has been some geophysical interest recently in the Bellingshausen Sea, which has glacial and tectonic histories similar to those of the Antarctic Peninsula and is most sensibly considered alongside it. This apart, however, the region is different from other regions of the Antarctic margin which are the concerns of other existing WG. It will be interesting to observe, during the progress of the W/S, the extent to which its interests and future plans will be confined to those topics which can be addressed at several places around Antarctica. Assuming that there should be some kind of focus to future activities, what will that focus be?