Research project: Sand dunes in Antarctica
Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent on Earth. In the ice-free dry valleys of Antarctica, there are sand dunes. The age and structure of the dunes are being investigated to determine how they have formed and migrated.
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The internal structure of the dunes was successfully imaged using GPR in December 2006 as part of event K015 with Paul Augustinus, Harry Jol, Irene Wallis, and Ed Rhodes. |
The cold climate dunes of Antarctica provide an analogue for dunes formed around the margins of ice sheets during the Quaternary, as well as planets like Mars, which are cold and dry and covered with sand dunes.
Related publications
- Bristow, C.S., Augustinus, P.C., Wallis, I.C., Jol, H.M., Rhodes, E.J., 2010, Investigation of the age and migration of reversing dunes in Antarctica using GPR and OSL, with implications for GPR on Mars. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 289, p.30-42. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.10.026
- Bristow, C.S., Jol, H.M., Augustinus, P.A., and Wallis, C., 2010, Slipfaceless ‘whaleback’ dunes in a polar desert, the Victoria Valley, Antarctica: insights from ground penetrating radar. Geomorphology 114, p.361-372. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2009.08.001.
