Seismostratigraphic Analysis and Glacial History of the Weddell Sea Region, Antarctica - Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach in Earth System Science - page 193

EAIS and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) (Fig. 1 ) (Dalziel 2007 ;K ö nig and

Jokat 2010 ).
Stratigraphy models have been studied from different local scales: in the
southeastern Weddell Sea basin (Miller et al. 1990 ; Rogenhagen et al. 2004 ), the
Antarctic Peninsula (e.g. Smith and Anderson 2010 ; Rebesco and Camerlenghi
2008 ), the Jane and Powell Basins in the northwestern Weddell Sea (Bohoyo et al.
2007 ). Lindeque et al. ( 2013 ) analyzed a long transact which crosses the central
Weddell Sea. The glacial detail stratigraphic model has been correlated to the
southeast Weddell Sea (Huang et al., in revision)
As the best archive of the deep sea, seismic data provide insight into the ice sheet
development and paleocirculation of the Weddell Sea from a pre-glacial to a glacial
climate. In this paper, we focus on seismic data interpretation based on the existing
stratigraphy models and published or unpublished seismic data and expand the new
stratigraphic model to the entire Weddell Sea. Stratigraphic horizons were picked
and integrated from region to region to achieve a uni

ed acoustic stratigraphy,
which would then be merged with seismic velocity models to calculate the depths of
key stratigraphic intervals. We deciphered sediment transport, deposition and ero-
sion pattern of this basin from pre-galcial to glacial will contribute to the under-
standing of the Antarctic ice sheet dynamics and the paleoocean circulation from
the greenhouse to icehouse world in the Cenozoic.

2 Data and Methods

Our study is based on multichannel seismic re ection datasets that were collected

by Germany, the UK, Norway and Spain between 1984 and 2002. All data are
archived in the Antarctic Seismic Data Library System (SDLS) (Wardell et al.
2007 ). In total, up to 30 seismic lines are incorporated in this study (Fig. 1 ). The
existing seismic stratigraphic models and regional seismic velocity information
were applied. P-wave velocities derived from sonobuoy recordings (H

fl

ü bscher

1994 ;H bscher et al. 1996 ) were used to constrain time-to-depth conversions. For

the interpretation and time to depth conversion we used the software packages from
LANDMARK.

ü

3 Results

3.1 Seismic Characteristics and Horizon Stratigraphy

In general, we followed the seismostratigraphic models, from Miller et al. ( 1990 )
and Rogenhagen et al. ( 2004 ) based on the ODP leg113 ODP 693, 694, 696, 697
sites for the age control of the seismic units.