『Abstract
In situ produced cosmogenic 3He analyses provide independent
support for the model of a stable, hyper-arid polar climate persisting
in East Antarctica since the mid-Miocene and provide quantitative
constraints on long-term rates of erosion within the Dry Valleys.
In the Coombs Hills area, a series of cobble-size boulders from
mega-ripples with wavelengths of approximately 50 m. Their topographic
position and association with features characteristic of scabland,
such as stripped, corrugated bedrock surfaces, indicate the boulders
were deposited by subglacial floodwaters. Such outburst flooding
could only have occurred during overriding of the northern Dry
Valleys by a greatly expanded East Antarctic ice sheet. Timing
of the overriding episode has been previously assigned to 14.8
to 13.6 Ma by correlation with volcanic ash deposits dated by
40Ar/39Ar in the Asgard Range of the Dry
Valleys. Cosmogenic 3He concentrations in clinopyroxene
from Ferrar dolerite boulders are consistent with 8.6 to 10.4
Ma exposure, calculated using scaling factors appropriate for
Antarctica and assuming zero erosion. These are among the oldest
surface exposure dates yet measured on Earth, but are not however
consistent with the 40Ar/39Ar chronology
used to define the age of the landscape due to unconstrained levels
of erosion. Erosion rates of 0.03-0.06 m Ma-1 are necessary
to have produced the measured boulder exposure age if they were
deposited at 14.8 Ma. These are less than half the steady-state
erosion rate derived from cosmogenic 3He in the nearby
bedrock surfaces (0.17 m Ma-1) and testify to the extreme
stability of the landscape.
Keywords: stable cosmogenic isotopes 3He; exposure
age; erosion rates; paleoclimatology; landscape evolution; Dry
Valleys』
1. Introduction
2. In situ cosmogenic isotope studies i the Dry Valleys
3. Sample description
4. Analytical method
5. Results
6. Interpretation of the cosmogenic 3He data
7. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References