Abstract:
Due to the continued uplift of the coastline as a response to the retreat of the last glacial maximum ice sheet, beaches are raised above the level of wave and ice push activity and are essentially fossil features which provide high resolution records of Holocene environmental changes along the Ross Sea sector of the Antarctic margin. Subsurface imaging of the sediments that make up raised
... beaches along the McMurdo Sound coast was completed using GPR so that a better understanding of the composition, make up and mode of construction of the beaches could be acquired. This examination of the geomorphology and internal constitution of the raised beaches using GPR allows interpretation of their stratigraphy and reconstruction of developmental processes and paleoenvironments as the raised beaches were formed. Radar profiles were taken from a range of beach types at fossil beach sites around the McMurdo coast including Cape Barne, Cape Royds, Cape Bird, Cape Crozier, Dunlop Island, MacDonalds Beach, Spike Cape, Marble Point, Cape Bernacchi and Explorers Cove. At several of these sites, shallow pites were excavated to the permafrost table to allow confirmation of the reality of radar reflectors observed during the GPR profiling. Sediment samples were taken from select beaches for dating by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) technique and shell samples were collected for 14C dating. Detailed descriptions and sketches were made of the shallow pits. 
