Description: Five samples of diamicts from different levels of the Miocene part of the CRP-1 core have been thin sectioned. Observations in the thin sections relate to texture, diagenesis, structure and plasmic fabric. The combination of observed microstructures leads to the interpretation that three samples are certainly indicative of grounded ice, e.g. they are basal tills, whilst the other two samples also possibly represent the same environment.

Description: Cape Roberts Project drill core 2/2A was obtained from Roberts Ridge, a sea-floor high located at 77° S, 16 km offshore from Cape Roberts in western McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The recovered core is about 624 m long and includes strata dated as being Quaternary, Pliocene, Miocene and Oligocene in age. The core includes twelve facies commonly occurring in associations that are repeated in particular sequences throughout the core and which are interpreted as representing different depositional environments through time. Depositional systems inferred to be represented in the succession include: outer shelf with minor iceberg influence, outer shelf-inner shelf-nearshore to shoreface under iceberg influence, deltaic and/or grounding-line fan, and ice proximal-ice marginal-subglacial (mass flow/rainout diamictite/subglacial till) singly or in combination. Changes in palaeoenvironmental interpretations up the core are used to estimate relative glacial proximity to the site through time. These inferred glacial fluctuations are then compared with the global eustatic sea level and d18O curves to evaluate the potential of glacial fluctuations on Antarctica influencing these records of global change. Although the comparisons are tentative at present, the records do have similarities, but there are also some differences especially in possible number (and perhaps magnitude) of glacial fluctuations that require further evaluation.

Description: Cape Roberts Project drill core 3 (CRP-3) was obtained from Roberts ridge, a sea-floor high located at 77°S, 12 km offshore from Cape Roberts in western McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The recovered core is about 939 m long and comprises strata dated as being early Oligocene (possibly latest Eocene) in age, resting unconformably on ~116 m of basement rocks consisting of Palaeozoic Beacon Supergroup sediments. The core includes ten facies commonly occurring in five major associations that are repeated in particular sequences throughout the core and which are interpreted as representing different depositional environments through time. Depositional systems inferred to be represented in the succession include: outer shelf, inner shelf, nearshore to shoreface each under iceberg influence, deltaic and/or grounding-line fan, and ice proximal-ice marginal-subglacial (mass flow/rainout diamictite/subglacial till) singly or in combination. The record is taken to represent the initial talus/alluvial fan setting of a glaciated rift margin adjacent to the block-uplifted Transantarctic Mountains. Development of a deltaic succession upcore was probably associated with the formation of palaeo-Mackay valley with temperate glaciers in its headwaters. At that stage glaciation was intense enough to support glaciers ending in the sea elsewhere along the coast, but a local glacier was fluctuating down to the sea by the time the youngest part of CRP-3 was being deposited. Changes in palaeoenvironmental interpretations in this youngest part of the core are used to estimate relative glacial proximity to the drillsite through time. These inferred glacial fluctuations are compared with the global d180 and Mg/Ca curves to evaluate the potential of glacial fluctuations on Antarctica for influencing these records of global change. Although the comparisons are tentative at present, the records do have similarities, but there are also some differences that require further evaluation.

Description: From the upper 300 m of CRP-2/2A, twenty-six samples of diamicts and deformation structures have been thin sectioned. These have been analysed for texture, structure, diagenesis and plasmic fabric. The combination of certain microstructures (e.g. turbate and linear) and plasmic fabric development is indicative of grounded ice. Clear evidence for two grounded ice events (three samples) was found in the upper Oligocene part of the core. The interpretation of ten more samples is less certain, but as for CRP-1, is taken to point to grounded ice as well. There is a strong correlation between these indications for grounded ice and the basal part of cycles in the sequence stratigraphy.

Description: The MBT-CBT proxy for the reconstruction of paleotemperatures and past soil pH is based on the distribution of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGT) membrane lipids. The Methylation of Branched Tetraether (MBT) and the Cyclisation of Branched Tetraether (CBT) indices were developed to quantify these distributions, and significant empirical relations between these indices and annual mean air temperature (MAT) and/or soil pH were found in a large data set of soils. In this study, we extended this soil dataset to 278 globally distributed surface soils. Of these soils, 26% contains all nine brGDGTs, while in 63% of the soils the seven most common brGDGTs were detected, and the latter were selected for calibration purposes. This resulted in new transfer functions for the reconstruction of pH based on the CBT index: pH = 7.90-1.97 × CBT (r**2 = 0.70; RMSE = 0.8; n = 176), as well as for MAT based on the CBT index and methylation index based on the seven most abundant GDGTs (defined as MBT'): MAT = 0.81-5.67 × CBT + 31.0 × MBT' (r**2 = 0.59; RMSE = 5.0 °C; n = 176). The new transfer function for MAT has a substantially lower correlation coefficient than the original equation (r**2 = 0.77). To investigate possible improvement of the correlation, we used our extended global surface soil dataset to statistically derive the indices that best describe the relations of brGDGT composition with MAT and soil pH. These new indices, however, resulted in only a relatively minor increase in correlation coefficients, while they cannot be explained straightforwardly by physiological mechanisms. The large scatter in the calibration cannot be fully explained by local factors or by seasonality, but MAT for soils from arid regions are generally substantially (up to 20 °C) underestimated, suggesting that absolute brGDGT-based temperature records for these areas should be interpreted with caution. The applicability of the new MBT'-CBT calibration function was tested using previously published MBT-CBT-derived paleotemperature records covering the last deglaciation in Central Africa and East Asia, the Eocene-Oligocene boundary and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum. The results show that trends remain similar in all records, but that absolute temperature estimates and the amplitude of temperature changes are lower for most records, and generally in better agreement with independent proxy data.