Preliminary results about sedimentological analysis performed on three box cores collected along the Ross Sea continental slope west to the Hillary Canyon (Eastern Ross Sea, Antarctica)

The continental slope of Antarctica is a key sector to reconstruct the evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) during the late Quaternary. It is accepted that the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) was grounded near the shelf break in the Western Ross Sea (WRS) during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). However, the history of the Ross Sea during the LGM and after the ice retreat is full of uncertainties about the timing of the events and the mechanisms. We present here the preliminary results about three box cores collected along the Ross Sea slope west of the Hillary Canyon, during the XXIX PNRA (Italian National Antarctic Research Program) expedition (2013-2014). These boxes have been partly studied but increasing the stratigraphic resolution will help to reconstruct in details the late Quaternary history of this sector of the Ross Sea. Grain size analyses were performed at 1-cm intervals in order to study the sortable silt fraction (10-63μm). Also organic matter, water content, magnetic susceptibility and chemical composition (via XRF core scanner) were analyzed. Organic matter was used to date (14C AIO dates) each box core.