CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

In contrast to off- and near-shore geomorphological and stratigraphical studies on former glacier dynamics on the Antarctic Peninsula, such studies on ice-free areas on-land are scarce. In order to contribute to the reconstruction of past glacial configurations and the deglaciation history of this region, further investigations should be conducted on correlating off-shore glacial landforms with glacial landforms on-land. Because of the retreating ice cover during the last 60 years, new coastal areas, bedrock outcrops, glacial landforms and their stratigraphic exposures have been exposed. The objective of this presentation is to show how glacial landforms on ice-free areas could be used as indicators for former glacier-movement on-land in the region of the North-Western Antarctic Peninsula, providing useful data to reconstruct former glacial configurations.Field geomorphological mapping and remote sensing carried out on recent on-land ice-free areas on Isla 25 de Mayo, South Shetland Islands, show glacial erosive and depositional landforms, such as glacial striae, grooves, roche moutonnées, drumlinoid and fluted forms, meltwater channels, U-shaped valleys and cirques as well as ice-marginal moraines. Those indicators were used to reconstruct the ice flow pattern and the extent of different glacial phases over time, based on their glaciological significance, cross-cutting relationships, orientation and location. Combining erosive and depositional landforms, it can be concluded that a glacier with subglacial load, ice-marginal deposition and active erosion at its wet based bed formed those glacial landforms. Furthermore, these glacial landforms, associated with those from adjacent off-shore areas of Isla 25 de Mayo propose the existence of at least three glacial advances during the last 20 cal ka BP within the studied region, if correlated with already published (Del Valle et al. 2007, Ó Cofaigh et al. 2014) chrono-stratigraphical records.