Abstract

A current meter mooring with eight small (400 cm²) sediment traps was deployed in 702 m of water near the snout of the McKay Glacier for 53 days between 15 November 1988 and 6 January 1989. The current velocities 1 m above sea floor average between 6.9 and 4.3 cm/s with intermittent speeds up to 10 cm/s. These speeds are considered capable of resuspending fine sediment to form a near bottom nephloid layer, and this is confirmed by much higher sediment fluxes below 520 m. The dominant flow direction at this site is towards the glacier tongue (240° – 270°T) but "daily" swings occur towards the south which are most likely related to the diurnal tidal cycle.

Tidal data were recorded continuously for fifty days (19 November – 8 January) from Cape Roberts, the first continuous tide record from the Antarctic continent in the Ross Sea sector. The Cape Roberts tide gauge is designed to record throughout the year and thus should provide data to establish a mean sea level bench mark as well as record relative sea level change over a longer period.