Multidisciplinary study of sediments deposited in the Ross Sea (Antarctica): information on changes of ice extent during the last 130 ka.

dynamics of the ice shelves, fluctuations of the ice sheets extensions (Eastern and Western) and volcanic activity from several volcanic complex of the Victoria Land. Marine sediments consisting of alternated glacigenic, biogenic and volcanic deposits can be interpreted in terms of changes in paleoclimate and paleoenvironment conditions. We present a multidisciplinary study of the sediments recovered in selected cores from Ross Sea during 1999 and 2000 cruises and stored in the Italian archive at Museo Nazionale dell’Antartide (Trieste). The study is based on tephrostratigraphy, petrology, paleomagnetism, rock magnetism, TIC/TOC geochemistry, Ar/Ar dating, palinology and integrated biostratigraphy of forams and calcareous nannoplankton of the sediments. Results provide new data on local and/or global changes of paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental conditions over the past 130 Ka. Furthermore, the study of the recovered volcanic deposits adds new information about the poorly known, recent volcanic activity in the Victoria Land area.