Jae Il Lee, Korea Polar Research Institute
Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) conducts a research project that aims to reconstruct past glacial history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and to identify the controlling factors of a marine-based ice sheet. The Amundsen Sea is one of the key draining regions of the WAIS, and during Araon’s 19-20 expedition to the Amundsen Sea (ANA10B, Dec 2019-Feb 2020) KOPRI scientists and collaborators conducted oceanographic and geological works to understand the vulnerability of the WAIS in the Amundsen Sea sector. Paleoclimate works included multibeam seafloor bathymetry, sub-bottom profiling (SBP), and sediment coring. We conducted multibeam bathymetry survey in the southernmost part of Wrigley Gulf to reconstruct changes in paleo-ice flow during the last deglaciation. Box and gravity cores were collected from six sites in Wrigley Gulf. Additional box and gravity cores were collected from the western Amundsen Sea slope. We could not get sediment cores in Thwaites Glacier-Pine Island Bay this time, but we could get SBP data that show distinct sediment characteristics of this region very well.
