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Beryllium isotope signatures of ice shelves and sub-ice shelf circulation

Created 19/11/2025

Updated 19/11/2025

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Be isotopes are a useful tracer of sediment source and transport pathways but have not been widely tested in glacio-marine environments. We measured Be isotopes in a range of depositional environments from open marine, sub-ice shelf and subglacial settings throughout Prydz Bay, one of Antarctica’s largest ice drainage systems. We find that strong sub-ice shelf and bottom current circulations can advect 10Be-rich open marine sediments into an ice shelf cavity, and 10Be-poor terrestrial sediments onto the continental shelf at the ice shelf outflow, meaning that 10Be concentrations reflect sub-ice shelf circulation patterns rather than depositional environment. However, HCl-extractable 10Be/9Be ratios can provide a more robust discrimination of sediment deposited in open marine and sub-ice shelf settings. Thus, Be isotopes are a useful tracer of both environmental setting and sub-ice shelf circulation strength in both modern and paleo-ice sheet margins. Citation: Duanne A. White, David Fink, Alexandra L. Post, Krista Simon, Ben Galton-Fenzi, Simon Foster, Toshiyuki Fujioka, Matthew R. Jeromson, Marcello Blaxell, Yusuke Yokoyama, Beryllium isotope signatures of ice shelves and sub-ice shelf circulation, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 505, 2019, Pages 86-95, ISSN 0012-821X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.10.004

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Beryllium isotope signatures of ice shelves and sub-ice shelf circulation
Language English
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/11cbd621-af6e-4e7e-bb53-59c3c3a8f635
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 04/05/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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      ],
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      ],
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      ]
    ]
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  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Beryllium isotope signatures of ice shelves and sub-ice shelf circulation". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/beryllium-isotope-signatures-of-ice-shelves-and-sub-ice-shelf-circulation1