Composition, distribution and origin of surficial salts in the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica

Abstract

A regional chemical boundary termed the 'salt line', in the Vestfold Hills of East Antarctica, has been investigated using X-ray diffraction and electron probe analyses of surficial salts, and conductivity of surficial sediments. West of the salt line, halite and thenardite are abundant. These salts are derived from dispersal of marine aerosols, saturation of sediment by seawater during postglacial marine transgression, and glacial dispersal of salt-saturated fjord bottom sediments. East of the salt line, subglacial calcium carbonates and salts formed by chemical weathering of their substrates occur. Chemically and morphologically diverse minerals form the weathering products. They include two minerals not found previously in Antarctica, dypingite and hydromagnesite, and the first confirmed occurrence of brushite.

Late Quaternary glacial history constrains glacio-isostatic rebound in Enderby Land, East Antarctica

“…The surface of the clasts and bedrock had not been strongly oxidized but was instead weathered through granular disintegration and had significant tafoni development. Weathering characteristics of both bedrock and erratics were similar to that observed in areas affected by sea spray or downwind of hypersaline lakes in the coastal oases of Princess Elizabeth Land [ Gore et al ., ; Gore and Colhoun , ; Kiernan et al ., ]. Unlike at CHU and CHL, here, the two erratics (DDI‐1 at 9.1 ka and DDI‐2 at 8.8 ka) gave identical exposure ages as for the sampled adjacent bedrock (DDI‐3, 8.4 ka).…”

Patterns and Processes of Salt Efflorescences in the McMurdo region, Antarctica

“…Dominant controls on chemical composition include marine aerosol input, snow sublimation, wicking of water around lake and stream boundaries, and chemical weathering (Keys and Williams, 1981;Claridge and Campbell, 1977;Gore et al, 1996;Bockheim, 1997). Other factors such as landscape age, the solubilization of remnant salts from paleolake desiccation (Bao et al, 2008;, rapid changes in relative humidity that affect the salt deliquescence, and cation exchange reactions can be geochemically influential.…”

Spatial distribution of birds and terrestrial plants in Bunger Hills

“…First, salt imposes osmotic stresses that limit plant growth. Second, enhanced weathering of rock surfaces has also been described from those salty areas (Gore & Leishman 2020a), similarly to other salty areas in Antarctica (Adamson & Pickard 1986, Pickard 1986, Gore et al 1996, Kiernan et al 2009, and in these areas, abrasion by wind-driven mineral sand grains and ice particles reduces the ability of plants to establish and thrive. In these areas, micro-habitats such as tafoni (Fig.…”