Description: The main goal is to introduce some of the technical methods of time series analysis and cyclostratigraphy, with the overall focus to enable interested scientists with little experience in time series analysis to “get their hands dirty” while analysing their own data sets. The course notes make use of example data sets, and provide pointers to additional methods and software to conduct the basic steps of analysis of geological data that appear to show evidence of cyclicity. The short course notes presented here were originally developed as teaching material for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Cambridge and Stockholm University. The original notes were modified and enhanced, and aim to supplement the presentation during the Paleontological Society Short Course 2006.

Description: During expedition PS104 with RV Polarstern in February and March 2017 the MARUM MeBo 70 seabed drilling system was deployed at nine sites on the continental shelf of the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica. A total of 57 meters of sediment core were recovered from 11 boreholes located in Pine Island Bay, Pine Island Trough, Bear Ridge and Cosgrove-Abbot Trough with recovery rates ranging from 7 to 76%. The main scientific objective of the drilling was to reconstruct the Late Mesozoic to Quaternary environmental history in this part of the Antarctic continental margin, with a special focus on the past dynamics of the marine based West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) from its inception to the last glacial cycle. Another main goal of the expedition was to test the suitability of the MeBo drill system for operating on the Antarctic continental shelf and recovering pre-glacial and glacially influenced sedimentary sequences. Here we will present the first results of sedimentological investigations carried out on the drill cores. These comprise (i) visual lithological descriptions, (ii) CT-scanning records of core stratigraphy, sedimentary structures, and possible artefacts induced by the drilling process, (iii) measurements of physical properties performed with a multi-sensor core logger, and (iv) characterisation of the geochemical composition of the drilled sedimentary strata using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanner data. Preliminary biostratigraphic investigations conducted on board ship indicated that the recovered sedimentary strata were deposited during various time slices spanning from the Late Cretaceous–Palaeocene to the Late Quaternary. We will provide an update of these initial chronological findings. Keywords: Drill cores, shelf sediments, West Antarctic Ice Sheet.