Description: This dataset includes palaeomagnetic inclination directions and density, reflectance (CIEL*a*b*) and red intensity (RGB) measurements from 100 metres of diatomaceous lake sediments from the Oligocene/Miocene Foulden Maar, New Zealand.

Description: The Taylor Valley (DVDP-10, -11) and Ferrar Fiord (CIROS-2) drill cores offer a window into the evolution of southern Victoria Land glaciers and the Antarctic climate system during the late-Neogene. Here we present new magnetostratigraphic chronologies, which we use to correlate the drill core successions with onshore dry-valleys geomorphic records and offshore deep-ocean records. Magnetostratigraphies were constructed using stepwise AF and/or thermal demagnetisation of discrete specimens from the drill cores. Correlation of magnetostratigraphies with the magnetic polarity timescale was guided by biostratigraphic and radiometric constraints. We recognise five styles of sedimentation in the Taylor/Ferrar fiords, which we correlate with discrete climate phases. During the latest Miocene-early Pliocene, wet based glaciers filled the Taylor and Ferrar fiords with active sedimentation in the Taylor Fiord and erosion of basement rocks in the Ferrar Fiord. Glaciers retreated during the Pliocene warm period leaving open marine conditions and deep fiords (〉300 m) at a time when the Ross Sea was free of ice and sea surface temperatures around Antarctica were at least 5 °C warmer than today. We recognise the first significant cooling in DVDP-11 post 2.6 Ma by a shift to current winnowed sediments sourced from the Ross Sea rather than from East Antarctic glaciers. Post 1.7 Ma, lacustrine sediments were deposited behind ice-dammed lakes, which formed when West Antarctic ice expanded and grounded across the Ross Embayment and abutted the Transantarctic Mountains.

Description: The AND-1B drill core recovered a 13.57 million year Miocene through Pleistocene record from beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf in Antarctica (77.9°S, 167.1°E). Varying sedimentary facies in the 1285 m core indicate glacial-interglacial cyclicity with the proximity of ice at the site ranging from grounding of ice in 917 m of water to ice free marine conditions. Broader interpretation of climatic conditions of the wider Ross Sea Embayment is deduced from provenance studies. Here we present an analysis of the iron oxide assemblages in the AND-1B core and interpret their variability with respect to wider paleoclimatic conditions. The core is naturally divided into an upper and lower succession by an expanded 170 m thick volcanic interval between 590 and 760 m. Above 590 m the Plio-Pleistocene glacial cycles are diatom rich and below 760 m late Miocene glacial cycles are terrigenous. Electron microscopy and rock magnetic parameters confirm the subdivision with biogenic silica diluting the terrigenous input (fine pseudo-single domain and stable single domain titanomagnetite from the McMurdo Volcanic Group with a variety of textures and compositions) above 590 m. Below 760 m, the Miocene section consists of coarse-grained ilmenite and multidomain magnetite derived from Transantarctic Mountain lithologies. This may reflect ice flow patterns and the absence of McMurdo Volcanic Group volcanic centers or indicate that volcanic centers had not yet grown to a significant size. The combined rock magnetic and electron microscopy signatures of magnetic minerals serve as provenance tracers in both ice proximal and distal sedimentary units, aiding in the study of ice sheet extent and dynamics, and the identification of ice rafted debris sources and dispersal patterns in the Ross Sea sector of Antarctica.