Glacial and periglacial history of the southern Prince Charles Mountains, East Antarctica

Field investigations into glacial sediments and landforms in the southern Prince Charles Mountains reveal at least four major phases of deposition. The oldest, which is a thick succession of mud-rich sediments on the summit surfaces, is a potential correlative of the mid-late Cenozoic Pagodroma Group. The next three are a series of thin, sandy diamict drapes across the massifs. The first phase of thin diamicts records a glacial expansion that inundated all of the 2000 m high nunataks, with weathering characteristics suggesting an early-mid Pleistocene age. The second phase records an ice height increase of ∼800 m near the modern grounding line. Sediments from this phase are relatively unweathered, and depositional landforms indicate deposition probably terminated during the short warm phase that occurred between 11 and 9.5 ka BP. The third and final phase indicates minor readvance since this time.