Geomorphological Insight of Some Ice Free Areas of Eastern Antarctica

Abstract

The Schirmacher Oasis and Larsemann Hills are among the few significant ice free areas of East Antarctica that are conspicuous due to presence of more than a hundred melt water lakes each, preserving the signatures of climatic variation and deglaciation history since Last Glacial Maximum (19 to 24 ky BP) and beyond. There are evidences, recorded in the lake sediments of low lying Larsemann Hills, of marine transgression due to variation in sea level, isostatic upliftment and close vicinity of the Hills to the marine environment. The Schirmacher Oasis, on the other hand has preserved various landforms-both erosional and depositional- typical of a periglacial environment along with proglacial lakes (incorporating signals of ice-sheet dynamics) and epishelf lakes (signatures of marine influence) .