The margin of the East Antarctic ice sheet adjacent to the Transantarctic mountains of Victoria Land contains large exposures of bare ice. The icefields are located in the lee of subglacial ridges and expose a stratigraphic cross-section of the ice sheet. Moraines within the ice sheet accumulate on these icefields by ablation of the ice. Dating based on ice-flow velocities, rates of meteorite accumulation, and the abundance of cosmogonic 10Be in quartz indicates that the moraines began to form less than 100,000 years ago. The most plausible cause for the formation of the moraines is a decrease in the thickness of the ice sheet in response to changes in climatic conditions either in the zone of accumulation or at the margin of the ice sheet. This investigation will determine the annual ablation rate of the ice sheet in the vicinity of the Reckling Moraine by recovering the ablation stakes set out during the 1986/87 season. Closely- spaced ice samples will be collected to document chronological discontinuities and ice thickness measurements will be made by radar.
