The study of existing cores collected across the Wilkes Land margin provides us with a better understanding of the sediment distribution and processes across this margin during the Holocene, and during Pleistocene glacial and interglacial cycles. Holocene depositional rates are high in deep (>1000m) inner-shelf basins where diatomaceous ooze is deposited at estimated minimum sedimentation rates...

Marine diatoms are silica-precipitating microalgae that account for over half of organic carbon burial in marine sediments and thus they play a key role in the global carbon cycle. Their evolutionary expansion during the Cenozoic era (66 Ma to present) has been associated with a superior competitive ability for silicic acid relative to other siliceous plankton such as radiolarians, which evolve...

[1] Although shelf seas account for only 7% of the oceanic surface area, recent observations demonstrate that they host significant ocean-atmosphere CO2 fluxes. A mechanism implicated in driving a significant CO2 sink in the temperate shelf seas is the Continental Shelf Pump. Here we present an analysis of the impact of sea-level rise, and the consequent flooding of continental shelves, on the ...

The styles of soft-sediment deformation, mineralogy, and biostratigraphy of mass-transport deposits recovered from Leg 150 drill sites (902-906) provide important new information on the erosional and sedimentary history of the New Jersey continental slope and rise, and on the relationship of mass-wasting processes to changes in relative sea level. Nine distinct sedimentary facies are recognized...

Using a global model of continental water balance, forced by interannual variations in precipitation and near-surface atmospheric temperature for the period 1981-1998, we estimate the sea-level changes associated with climate-driven changes in storage of water as snowpack, soil water, and ground water; storage in ice sheets and large lakes is not considered. The 1981-1998 trend is estimated to ...

A Fossil Mounded Sedimentary Body (MB) has been identified in the sedimentary record on the central continental rise west of Adelaide Island, on the Antarctic Peninsula Pacific margin. The growth patterns of the MB are defined through a detailed regional stratigraphic analysis using multichannel seismic reflection profiles. The MB has an elongated NE trend. It overlaps and continues to the NE o...

Global topographic data and the assumption of Airy isostasy have been used to estimate the crustal volumes of the continents and the oceanic and continental submarine plateaus. The calculated crustal volumes are 7182 X lo6 km3 for the continents, 242 x lo6 km3 for continental submarine plateaus, and 369 X lo6 km3 for oceanic plateaus. The Falkland Plateau and the Lord Howe Rise are the two larg...