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Prydz Channel Fan and the History of Extreme Ice Advances in Prydz Bay

Created 20/01/2026

Updated 20/01/2026

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During the late Neogene, the Lambert Glacier-Amery Ice Shelf drainage system flowed across Prydz Bay in an ice stream that reached the shelf edge and built a trough mouth fan on the upper continental slope. The adjacent banks saw mostly subglacial till deposition beneath slower-moving ice. The fan consists mostly of debris flow deposits derived from the melting out of subglacial debris at the grounding line at the continental shelf edge. Thick debris flow intervals are separated by thin mudstone horizons deposited when the ice had retreated from the shelf edge. Age control in ODP Site 1167 indicates that the bulk of the trough mouth fan was deposited prior to the Brunhes-Matuyama Boundary (780 ka) with as few as 3 debris flow intervals deposited since then. This stratigraphy indicates that extreme advances of the Lambert Glacier-Amery Ice Shelf system ceased during the mid Pleistocene. Possible causes for this change are progressive over-deepening of the inner shelf, a reduction in maximum ice volumes in the interior of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet caused by temperature change and a change in the interaction of Milanckovich cycles and the response time of the ice sheet.

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Title Prydz Channel Fan and the History of Extreme Ice Advances in Prydz Bay
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/8e63c5f8-1453-4dd2-bd00-bbff0cf4a6b5
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 22/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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Data Portal Data.gov.au