Veronica Willmott
Hamilton College, Dept. of Geosciences, 198 College Hill Rd, Clinton, NY, USA (e-mail: edomack@hamilton.edu)

Eugene Domack
Hamilton College, Dept. of Geosciences, 198 College Hill Rd, Clinton, NY, USA

Laurence Padman
Earth and Space Research, Seattle, Washington.

Miquel Canals
GRC Geociencies Marines, Dept. d'Estratigrafia, P. i Geociencies Marines, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain




Four sediment cores were collected along the Gerlache Strait, Western Antarctic Peninsula, over
two extremely thick, sedimentary accumulations: the Andvord and the Schollaert drifts. The four
cores present a sediment facies succession from couplets of laminated diatom ooze and sandymud
alternating with massive, bioturbated, terrigenous silt /clay unit to a predominantly massive,
bioturbated, silty-clay unit. Seismic profiles across the Schollaert Drift show an internal structure
defined by wavy stratified reflectors onlapping the northern slope of the strait. We suggest that the
formation of the Schollaert Drift was strongly related to the persistence of estuarine conditions
during the Middle Holocene along the Gerlache Strait, arising from blockage of the southern entrance
by increased glaciation. Such a blockage would have resulted in a retention of fresh water input from
melting ice margins and melting sea ice, increased surface temperatures, and reduced exchange
with waters originating from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. In that context, the increase in
suspended sediment would have been redistributed by tidal currents leading to enhanced deposition
of sediment across the Schollaert Drift.