This Small Grant for Exploratory Research explores the possibility of dating beach deposits on the Antarctic Peninsula using Optical Stimulated Luminescence (OSL). This area is undergoing uplift in response to glacial retreat, and dating these deposits will allow for estimations of ice sheet thickness during the last glacial maximum through the creation of new sea level curves. Accurate reconstructions of ice sheet size are critical to predicting sea level rise in response to global warming. In terms of other broader impacts, this project supports a graduate student, who is learning cutting edge analytical techniques while applying them to questions of global climate change.
