9316310 Faure This award supports acquisition of exposure ages of rocks in the Dry Valleys regions in order to determine when the Transantarctic Mountains were last overridden by the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and to help resolve competing hypotheses about the Pliocene history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. This project will date the exposure of quartz on the summits of the highest peaks in the Transantarctic Mountains of southern Victoria Land by measuring 10Be and 26Al which form by cosmic ray bombardment of quartz. The geological interpretation of these dates is based on the assumption that the highest peaks in southern Victoria Land were covered during the last full transgression of the ice sheet and then, as the ice receded, the mountains were exposed and parts have been exposed ever since. Consequently, by measuring exposure ages on the sides of several mountains, this project will construct an exposure history that will be interpreted as a record of ice sheet recession. The dates produced by this project will help to resolve the controversy about the Sirius Formation and will address some questions about the stability of the East Antarctic ice sheet. ***
