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We extended existing local and sub-regional stratigraphic models to the entire
Weddell Sea basin. The distribution of the total sediment thickness shows a
decreasing trend northward. The maximum sediment thickness of up to 8 km is
found on the southern margin. The pre-glacial unit has the thickest sediments owing
to its long sedimentation period, but was deposited with a relatively low rate. The
tectonic evolution and sea
oor spreading history of the Weddell Sea interacted with
terrigenous sediment supply processes to control its distribution. The transitional
unit accumulated at a relatively high sedimentation rate. Its thickness varies in the
range of 0
fl
1.2 km. A relatively strong sediment supply from a growing EAIS
grounded to the coast or even inner shelf could be the main contributor to sedi-
mentation on the continental rise. The high sedimentation rate at the full glacial
period generated depocenters near the margins of the southern, southeastern and
western Weddell Sea. The large amount of sediments, and their deposition at high
sedimentation rates in the southern Weddell Sea imply in increase of glacial
advances of grounded EAIS, WAIS and APIS to the middle or outer shelf since the
middle Miocene.
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Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the masters, crews and seismic teams of the
ship expeditions to the Weddell Sea enabling the acquisition of the used data. The British Antarctic
Survey (BAS), the German Federal Institute of Geosciences and Resources (BGR) as well as
research institutes in Norway and Spain are gratefully acknowledged for their contribution of the
used seismic data to the Antarctic Seismic Data Library System (SDLS). X.H. has been receiving a
PhD scholarship from the Chinese Scholarship Council. This study has primarily been supported
through institutional funds of the Alfred Wegener Institute through Work Package 3.2 of its
research program PACES.
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