The tr
ansfer of terrigenous sediments from Ant
arctic
a to the Southern Oce
an results from gl
aciologic
al processes
and subsequent tr
ansport by oce
an currents. Est
ablishing the link between the composition of circumpol
ar sediments
and the geology of Ant
arctic
a c
an provide import
ant insights into p
ast ice sheet
and oce
an current dyn
amics. Here we document the v
ari
ability of Ant
arctic sediment sources using
40Ar/
39Ar
ages of individu
al detrit
al hornblende gr
ains
and bulk (< 63
a0;m) Sm/Nd isotope system
atics from gl
acio-m
arine sediments from 29 cores surrounding Ant
arctic
a. High
143Nd/
144Nd r
atios
and
associ
ated young Sm/Nd-model
ages ch
ar
acterize sediments proxim
al to West Ant
arctic
a, while lower
143Nd/
144Nd r
atios
and correspondingly older Sm/Nd-model
ages
are found in s
amples ne
arby E
ast Ant
arctic
a. Detrit
al hornblende gr
ains in West Ant
arctic sediments typic
ally h
ave
40Ar/
39Ar
ages younger th
an 200
a0;M
a while E
ast Ant
arctic hornblende gr
ains yield
40Ar/
39Ar
ages th
at cluster in
a predomin
ant popul
ation centered on
![](http://www.sciencedirect.com/scidirimg/entities/223c.gif)
alt="not, vert, simil
ar" border=0> 500
a0;M
a, reflecting the widespre
ad l
ate Neoproterozoic–e
arly C
ambri
an (P
an-Afric
an
and Ross) orogenies th
at
affected E
ast Ant
arctic
a. An exception comes from sediments
adj
acent to Wilkes L
and, where
abund
ant Mesoproterozoic
and P
aleoproterozoic hornblende gr
ains suggest th
at this portion of the E
ast Ant
arctic cr
aton w
as l
argely buffered from P
an-Afric
an met
amorphism. The geochemic
al ch
ar
acteristics of sediment sources
are thus consistent with the geology of rock outcrops
around the Ant
arctic perimeter. The combined Sm–Nd d
at
a and
40Ar/
39Ar
ages of circum-Ant
arctic gl
acio-m
arine sediments outline sever
al geogr
aphic sectors with distinct proven
ance sign
als, thereby providing
a b
ase m
ap for fingerprinting sediment sources from the Ant
arctic m
argin.