**Author details**

*Glaciers and the Polar Environment*

conditions prevailed around 4 cal ka BP.

**5. Conclusions**

Schirmacher Oasis [40].

**Acknowledgements**

NCPOR Contribution No **B-5/2020-2021.**

records and geochemical proxies suggest presence of marine sediments during mid-Holocene [3, 35] and while diatoms endemic to sub-Antarctic island corresponding to MIS 5e stage were recorded from Broknes Peninsula (Last Interglacial) [33, 36]. The reduced elevation and planation surfaces must have been carved before the LGM facilitating the marine transgression. Based on the variation of diatom population present in sediments suggest that the influence of seawater got weakened after ~5000 yrs. BP [37] and relative warmer climatic condition was prevalent [37, 38]. Core studies from a lake in Grovnes Promontory by [39] have shown high productivity between ~8.3 to ~6 cal ka BP and that the ice free

The geomorphology of Schirmacher Oasis and Larsemann Hills, the two prominent ice free areas present distinct erosional and depositional landforms characteristic of a polar periglacial environment. Both the areas house hundreds of melt water lakes that have preserved the signatures of glacial–interglacial climate variations in the sediments deposited. Paleaoclimate history for the past ~42 cal. ka B.P [5] has revealed wide spread glaciation in LGM with Holocene being characterized by alternating warm and cold phases. Presence of marine sediments were documented from two coastal lakes viz., Pup Lagoon [35] and Heart Lake [3, 35] suggesting isostatic upliftment in the region. The sedimentological data viz.: sediment sorting, composition and the SEM studies on quartz grains from the two areas have shown similar results except the extent and strength of glacial processes. While there was a strong effect of glacial processes on quartz grains from Larsemann Hills, the imprints of glaciofluvial activity were more prominent on quartz grains from

The authors thank the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India and expeditioners of Indian Antarctic Programme. MB and RM would also like to place on record their sincere thanks to Director, NCPOR for the encouragement. This is

**30**

Rasik Ravindra1 \*, Badanal Siddaiah Mahesh<sup>2</sup> and Rahul Mohan2

1 National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Goa, India

2 National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Headland Sada, Goa, India

\*Address all correspondence to: rasikravindra@gmail.com

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
