In the November issue of GSA Bulletin, Lewis et al. report on till stratigraphy constrained by Ar/Ar ages of volcanic ash from the Olympus Range in the Dry Valleys. According to the article till generated by wet-based glaciers is older than sublimation till from dry-based glaciers nearby. The ages on the ashes are used to determine the age of the transition.
An article discussing the drilling technology and preliminary scientific results of the McMurdo Ice Shelf drilling of ANDRILL can be found in the printed issue of Geotimes. Currently ANDRILL is drilling a second hole in Southern McMurdo Sound. Check http://www.andrill.org/ for science updates (from Oct. 15 approximately).
Pete Convey and Mark Stevens review evidence of survival of Antarctic biota over the past tens of millions of years, implying that ice-free refugia must have existed. These studies highlight a possible mismatch between ice-sheet modeling and terrestrial evidence. The article can be found in Science at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/317/5846/1877
The International Polar Year 2007-2009 is enriched with another great project now that the Intergrated Ocean Drilling Program has scheduled an expedition to the Wilkes Land margin for January-March 2009.
A study of the Fuji Dome and Vostok ice cores published in Nature shows that orbital-scale Antarctic climate change lags Northern Hemisphere insolation by a few thousand years since at least 360,000 years ago. Find the first paragraph of the article here.
