In the framework of the recent paleoclimatic reconstructions of peri-Antarctic and Antarctic areas, the Strait of Magellanes is a key site for the studies on the environmental modifications during the last 20 kyr, since the climate changes in the late Quaternary have sharply modified the sedimentary settings.
Although the influence of the late Quaternary glaciations on this area has been studied by several authors on both continental and marine series, the conditions and timing of the transition during the latest glacial-interglacial are still subject of discussion.
In 2003 in the framework of PNRA it was proposed the project “Late Quaternary climatic evolution of Magellanic-Fuegian areas (Southernmost South America)”. The project, proposed on the basis of the results of the previous researches, aims to investigate in detail some aspects of the late Quaternary climatic evolution related to the deglacial processes, the environmental evolution, and the Holocene climatic fluctuations in selected areas of a peri-Antarctic region (Magellanic-Fuegian area). The research will be focused on 2 sectors, corresponding to the depressions occupied by the principal glacial lobes during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM): the Seno Otway and the Seno Skyring.
In may 2005 a geologic cruise was performed with the “Gran Campo II” vessel in Seno Otway and Seno Skyring.
In this work we report the main results obtained from the study of the cores collected during the 2005 cruise. In particular 6 cores from Seno Otway and 1 from Seno Skyring were collected, opened, described, and subsampled. Some cores were X-rayed. Analyses on water content, grain size, organic content, bulk and clay fraction mineralogy, microfaunal assemblages were performed. Selected levels were 14C dated.
