Lost cold Antarctic deserts inferred from unusual sulfate formation and isotope signatures

Tao Sun (), Richard A. Socki, David L. Bish, Ralph P. Harvey, Huiming Bao, Paul B. Niles, Ricardo Cavicchioli and Eric Tonui
Additional contact information
Tao Sun: Louisiana State University
Richard A. Socki: ESCG, NASA Johnson Space Center
David L. Bish: Indiana University
Ralph P. Harvey: Case Western Reserve University
Huiming Bao: Louisiana State University
Paul B. Niles: NASA Johnson Space Center
Ricardo Cavicchioli: University of New South Wales
Eric Tonui: Upstream Technology

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract The Antarctic ice cap significantly affects global ocean circulation and climate. Continental glaciogenic sedimentary deposits provide direct physical evidence of the glacial history of the Antarctic interior, but these data are sparse. Here we investigate a new indicator of ice sheet evolution: sulfates within the glaciogenic deposits from the Lewis Cliff Ice Tongue of the central Transantarctic Mountains. The sulfates exhibit unique isotope signatures, including δ34S up to +50‰ for mirabilite evaporites, Δ17O up to +2.3‰ for dissolved sulfate within contemporary melt-water ponds, and extremely negative δ18O as low as −22.2‰. The isotopic data imply that the sulfates formed under environmental conditions similar to today’s McMurdo Dry Valleys, suggesting that ice-free cold deserts may have existed between the South Pole and the Transantarctic Mountains since the Miocene during periods when the ice sheet size was smaller than today, but with an overall similar to modern global hydrological cycle.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8579

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