LATE QUATERNARY SEDIMENTARY RECORDS AND PALEOCEANOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS FROM THE CORE ON CONTINENTAL SLOPE OFF THE PRYDZ BAY, EAST ANTARCTIC

Environment sensitive grain size components of the sediments of the core P1-03, recovered from the continental slope off the Prydz Bay, were analyzed. Eight events of ice-rafted debris were identified for the past 520 ka, which mostly occurred in the glacials and the relatively cold periods in interglacials. The amount of sorted silt and clay fractions reflect the strength of bottom currents. Their cyclic variations suggest that the bottom currents were relatively weak during ice ages, which is favorable for clay deposition, while intensive during interglacial stages, together with the southward shift of the main axis of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, and the increase in water exchange between shelf and slope.