Biogenic carbonates in Antarctic marine sequences are critical to constrain reliable chronologies for Late
Quaternary glacial/interglacial events. Increased amounts of iceberg rafted debris (IBRD) in ice-proximal sediments
are proxies for climate-induced disruption of the Ross Ice Shelf system. However, ice rafting events seen in deepsea
sediments from this region lack of age control because they are typically barren of calcareous microfossils. We
document here evidence of carbonate preservation in three out of eight cores collected from the Ross Sea
continental slope (2058-3360 m-depth). AMS-C14 dates from N. pachyderma-rich IBRD range between 28.2ka
and 17.2ka B.P, and between ~19 ka and 14.4 ka B.P suggesting that deep Ross Sea sediments can retain a reliable
record of pre- and post- LGM events involving massive destabilization of the Ross Ice shelf-sea ice system. These
events occurred at a regional scale and were possibly linked to global sea-level rise from meltwater pulse (MWP)
events e.g., 19-kyr MWP.
