Post‐glacial terraces near cape chocolate, Mcmurdo sound, Antarctica

Abstract

Summary Near Cape Chocolate, two streams fed by the Hobbs and Salmon Glaciers flow to a bay partly enclosed by a breached loop of an ice‐cored terminal moraine of Hobbs Glacier. A hay‐head delta constructed by the streams is diffed at its outer edge, and covers a marine bench which rises to a height of about 30 ft. Along the streams, between the delta and glaciers, are terraces cut in moraine and fluvioglacial sediments. The sequence provides a basis for a post‐glacial chronology of the McMurdo Sound region, but the interpretation is complicated by the interplay of isostatic upwarping following deglaciation and perhaps by EUstatic sea‐level changes. A local chronology is presented and the 00 ft bench is tentatively correlated witl, the climax of the post‐glacial rise of sealevel. The present height of the bench is probably due to isostatic uplift.