ДИНАМІКА ГЛЯЦІАЛЬНИХ ПРОЦЕСІВ В ПІЗНЬОМУ ПЛЕЙСТОЦЕН-ГОЛОЦЕНІ В РАЙОНІ АНТАРКТИЧНОГО ПІВОСТРОВА НА ПІДСТАВІ ОПУБЛІКОВАНОЇ ЛІТЕРАТУРИ

Problem Statement and Purpose. Conducting geological research, including glacial processes in the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) area, is important for forming fundamental ideas about the geological evolution of the planet and its further development. Glaciers are an indicator of climate change and significantly affect ocean levels. They are one of the main suppliers of sedimentation products to the ocean. Determining the age of the ice sheet and its deglaciation helps in solving the issues of sediment accumulation. These studies are necessary in creating paleoclimatic and paleogeographic reconstructions of the study area. The purpose of the work is to study the dynamics of glacial processes in the Late Pleistocene-Holocene time in the Antarctic Peninsula area. The object of research is glacial processes. The subject of research is geological conditions and spatio-temporal dynamics of the ice sheet. Data & Methods. Material from literary, cartographic, retrospective and recent data from geological research of the Antarctic Peninsula was used in the article. The scientific literature covering glacial dynamics and its relationship to global climate change and sedimentation conditions on the Antarctic Peninsula during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene is summarized. Results. The Antarctic Peninsula is composed of volcanogenic and terrigenous sediments ranging in age from the Late Paleozoic to the Cenozoic. The main factors that determine the speed of a glacier are climate, the influence of the ocean on the outer edge of the glacier, and its internal dynamics. The surface temperature of the Antarctic Peninsula increased by 2.5 °C during the second half of the 20th century. Warming has the potential to significantly raise global sea levels. The estimated eustatic sea level rise since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) is about 2.9 m. The intensive melting of Antarctic glaciers over the past 40 years has doubled the rate of eustatic sea level rise (from 1.5 mm/year to 3 mm/year). An integrated approach to reconstructing paleo-ice cover is most effective. It is a combination of different types of research: geophysical research, radiocarbon dating of marine sediments, lake and terrestrial organic materials, isotopic analysis of micropaleontological data. The history of the ice sheet for the AP, a series of time-lapse reconstructions are presented in the work. Most authors agree that the AR ice sheet coincided with the continental shelf boundary during the LGM (approximately 26,000 years ago). Different points of view exist. Some studies suggest that 90% of the Antarctic Peninsula’s glaciers have shrunk since 1950. According to other studies, 60% of the Antarctic Peninsula glaciers are in the process of shrinking, 25% are expanding, and 7% are fluctuating. The Antarctic Peninsula is losing more ice mass than it is gaining. The process is unbalanced. For different glaciers, the rate of deglaciation varies in a fairly wide range: from zero to 660 m per year in different parts of it, depending on the season. The Antarctic Peninsula has had several stages of glacier advance and retreat. The most extreme period was the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) about 26,000 years ago. The glaciers were located on the edge of Antarctica’s inner shelf at this time. The ice sheet began to retreat from the boundary of the last glacial maximum approximately 18,000 years ago. Ice-free zones appeared about ~10,000–8,000 years ago and have persisted to the present day. The ice sheet actively retreated between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago along the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. His retreat had individual features and was asynchronous in different places. Minor periods of shield retreat occurred about 7,000 years ago, 5,000 years ago, and during the last 2,500 years ago. The Neoglacial рeriod begins 2.5 thousand years ago and is marked by cooler conditions, ice shelf expansion, and glacial advance. The Little Ice Age is the period between approximately 1500 and 1800 AD. It had several distinct periods with global cooling of about 0.5 °C. There was little ice sheet movement during this period. Active deglaciation began in the 50s of the 20th century.