Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)


Print Feedback Export to File
1279690 
Book/Book Chapter 
Constraining the age and stability of unconsolidated deposits with cosmogenic nuclides in the McMurdo dry valleys, Antarctica 
Morgan, DJ 
2009 
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States (USA) 
United States (USA) 
The focus of this dissertation is the evolution of unconsolidated deposits in the McMurdo dry valleys, Antarctica (MDV) over millions of years. Using the concentration of cosmogenic nuclides (super 10) Be and (super 26) Al from vertical profiles in meter-deep hand-dug soil pits. I establish degradation rates and limiting ages for unconsolidated deposits in the MDV. By quantifying rates of geomorphic degradation that operate for millions of years in the MDV, I provide a clearer picture of how these landscapes are actively changing over long periods of time, which will allow us to better interpret the environmental information contained in unconsolidated deposits there. (mod. auth. abst.) 
erosion rates; metals; soils; Antarctica; Cenozoic; glacial environment; creep; Miocene; unconsolidated materials; landform evolution; till; clastic sediments; Tertiary; Neogene; Victoria Land; erosion; beryllium; sediments; soil erosion; McMurdo dry valleys; degradation; absolute age; alkaline earth metals; glacial erosion; isotopes; Be-10; Al-26; aluminum; age; Quaternary; geomorphology; radioactive isotopes; (2009)