ANTIPODE

Antarctic ice shelves are thinning in response to on-going ocean warming especially in the marine-based sectors of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS). Location of ocean heat exchanges across the continental shelf edge nowadays determines which sectors of Antarctica are most at risk of fast retreat or collapse. Pan-Antarctic continental margins evolved notably since 34 Million years ago as result of the AIS advances and retreats and associated extensive bed erosion. Sediment core records and seismic stratigraphy show a major change in sedimentation after the Middle Miocene (15 Million years ago) which affected the morphology of the bathymetry. At some point of the Antarctic Ice Sheet evolution, the heat and salt exchange across the continental shelves become a first order factor of the Antarctic Ice Sheet variability. We want to determine when this feedback between ocean and Antarctica strengthened.