Abstract.Changes production resumed under full interglacial conditions. The magnitude of benthic õ13C minima and ice-rafted debris maxima at terminations at site 982 generally match the degree of glacial suppression of NADW inferred from site 607. These processes may be related and controlled by the spatial and seasonal extent of sea ice cover during glaciations in the Nordic Seas.

Turbidite, contourite and hemipelagic deposition are the main components of Wilkes Land continental rise sedimentation above the regional unconformity WL2. On the continental shelf, unconformity WL2 marks the start of shelf progradation, which is interpreted to correspond with the onset of glacial conditions in this segment of the east Antarctic margin. Unusually large (i.e. up to 900 m relief and 18 km between levee crests) channel-levee deposits, and high relief (up to 490 m) mounded contourite-style deposits develop above unconformity WLlb. Unconformity WLlb overlies unconformity WL2 and is interpreted to have formed under a fully continental glacial regime where ice streams reached the palaeo-continental shelf edge. Based on an analysis of multichannel seismic profiles and sediment cores, we differentiate three phases in the development of the sedimentary unit between WL1b and the present seafloor. From older to younger these are: Phase 1, dominated by turbidite deposition; Phase 2, dominated by turbidite and contourite deposition with significant mound building; and Phase 3, dominated by turbidite and contourite deposition without active mound building. We hypothesize that building of the mounds during Phase 2 corresponded with times of expansion of the Antarctic ice-sheet when vast amounts of sediment were eroded from the continent and continental shelf. The large amount of unsorted glacial sediment supplied to the outer shelf apparently travelled down the slope canyons and rise channels as turbidity current flows to feed the usually large continental rise channel-levee complexes. The suspended fines of the turbidity flows were then entrained in a palaeo-nepheloid layer and carried by the westward flowing palaeo-contour currents until their deposition in the mounds. During Phase 3, sediment supply to the continental rise, although important in volume and capable of turbidite and contour-current deposition, was insufficient to support further building of the mounds. We believe the decrease in sediment supply to the continental rise from Phase 2 to Phase 3 could be the result of a change on sediment depocentres, with most of the sediment supplied to the margin during Phase 3 being trapped on the continental shelf. We believe that ultimately these changes are related to the stage of glacial evolution of the continent.

The study of existing cores collected across the Wilkes Land margin provides us with a better understanding of the sediment distribution and processes across this margin during the Holocene, and during Pleistocene glacial and interglacial cycles. Holocene depositional rates are high in deep (>1000 m) inner-shelf basins where diatomaceous ooze is deposited at estimated minimum sedimentation rates ranging from 40 to 60 cm/kyr. In the shelf troughs, Holocene sediment has a patchy distribution or is totally absent. This is also the case on the shelf banks due to differential deposition because of the irregular relief of the continental shelf and the erosion and redistribution by bottom currents. Pleistocene interglacial sedimentation is well represented in sediment from the continental rise and is dominated by hemipelagic deposition of massive mud with the highest biogenic content (as indicated by %opal) and with a high abundance of clasts (IRD). During the Pleistocene glacial cycles, diamictons were deposited in the continental-shelf troughs and on the banks. Reworking (e.g., by bottom currents) and remobilization (e.g., gravity flows) of these diamictons is a common process along the shallow continental-shelf banks. On the continental slope and the continental rise, gravity flows are one of the most important sedimentary processes. Sediment from continental-slope cores, with a texture that greatly resembles the diamictons on the shelf, is interpreted to represent either part of a slump block or the start of a debris flow. Downslope, crudely stratified to laminated intervals represent the transition between an end member of a debris flow and a turbidity flow. Some of the laminated intervals in cores from the continental rise represent sediment deposited from a turbidity flow. Ages obtained from cores further support that slumps and gravity flows are dominant processes in this margin, because numerous hiatuses apparently are present in cores from the base of the slope. One of these cores extends into the Miocene. Elsewhere on the continental rise, massive and laminated sediments in cores of similar length record near-continuous Pleistocene sedimentation. r

We have analyzed ice‐rafted debris (IRD) from the South Atlantic Ocean (∼43°S, 9°E) in order to investigate Antarctic Ice Sheet history during the late Pleistocene; the cores examined for this study include piston core TN057‐6‐PC4 and Ocean Drilling Program Leg 177 drill core Site 1090 (177‐1090). Over the last 500 ka at this distal location, IRD arrived during both glacials and interglacials. IRD is present even during warmer intervals, is greatest during colder intervals, and is absent only during terminations and a few other brief intervals. Four different methods are used to normalize the IRD counts, which are then compared to support our interpretation. Several other high‐quality climate proxies from this location also aid our interpretations. We conclude that sea surface temperatures are the primary control on the delivery of IRD to this site. During cold times more icebergs survived to reach this distal location. During warm times only a few of the largest icebergs could travel this far. Garnets found in these sediments suggest a likely East Antarctic origin for the IRD; the presence of garnets even during warm intervals further strongly supports that the iceberg source must be the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS). Therefore, the EAIS must have continued to reach the ocean at least in some part of its margin throughout the last 500 ka. On the other hand, we cannot specifically trace any IRD to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), so WAIS persistence cannot be tested. A particular radiolarian, identified as Dictyocoryne profunda (Ehrenberg) (sensu Boltovskoy (1998)), shows up in the examined size fraction generally only during warm phases. We suggest that D. profunda is a sensitive indicator of warm water temperatures and that it deserves further study.

A preliminary composite depth section was generated for Site 704 by splicing Holes 704A and 704B together over the interval 0-350 mbsf (0-9 m.y.). High-resolution carbonate and opal data from the cores were correlated with the calcium and silicon signals from the GST logging run in Hole 704B to identify missing and disturbed intervals in the cores. Paleomagnetic and biostratigraphic age boundaries were then transferred to the composite depth records to obtain an age model, and sedimentation rates were calculated by linear interpolation between datums. Algorithms relating measured dry-bulk density to carbonate content and depth were generated to produce predicted values of density for every sample. Accumulation rates of bulk, carbonate, opal, and terrigenous sediment components were then computed to generate a record of sediment deposition on the Meteor Rise that has a resolution of better than 200,000 yr for the period from 8.6 to 1.0 m.y. From 8.6 to 2.5 m.y., bulk-accumulation rates on the Meteor Rise averaged less than 2 g/cm 2 /1000 yr and were dominated by carbonate deposition. The first significant opal deposition (6.0 m.y.) punctuated a brief (less than 0.6 Ma) approach of the Polar Front Zone (PFZ) northward that heralded a period of increasing severity of periodic carbonate dissolution events (terrigenous maxima) that abruptly terminated at 4.8 m.y. (base of the Thvera Subchron), synchronous with the reflooding of the Mediterranean after the Messinian salinity crisis. From 4.8 to 2.5 m.y., carbonate again dominated deposition, and the PFZ was far south except during brief northward excursions bracketing 4.2-3.9, 3.3-2.9, and 2.8-2.7 m.y. At 2.5 m.y., all components of bulk-accumulation rates increased dramatically (up to 15 g/cm 2 /1000 yr), and by 2.4 m.y., a pattern of alternating, high-amplitude carbonate and opal cyclicity marked the initiation of rapid glacial to interglaciál swings in the position of the PFZ, synchronous with the "onset" of major Northern Hemisphere glaciation. Both mass-accumulation rates and the amplitude of the cycles decreased by about 2 m.y., but opal accumulation rates remained high up through the base of the Jaramillo (0.98 m.y.). From 1.9 to 1 m.y., the record is characterized by moderate amplitude fluctuations in carbonate and opal. This record of opal accumulation rates is interpreted as a long-term "Polar Front Indicator" that monitors the advance and retreat of the opal-rich PFZ northward (southward) toward (away from) the Meteor Rise in the subantarctic sector of the South Atlantic Ocean. The timing of PFZ migrations in the subantarctic South Atlantic Ocean is remarkably similar to Pliocene-Pleistocene climate records deduced from benthic oxygen isotope records in the North Atlantic Ocean (