Four sediment cores were analysed in order to determine the sedimentary processes associated with the channel-ridge depositional
system that characterise the George V Land continental margin on the Wilkes Land. The sedimentary record indicates that the
WEGA channel was a dynamic turbiditic system up to M.I.S. 11. After this time, the channel became a lower-energy environment
with sediments delivered to the channel through high-density bottom waters that we identify to be the high salinity shelf
waters (HSSW) forming on the shelf area. The HSSW entrains the fine-grained sediments of the shelf area and deliver them to
the continental rise. The biostratigraphy and facies of the sediments within the WEGA channel indicate that the HSSW down
flow was active also during last glacial. The change from a turbiditic system to a low-energy bottom current system within
the WEGA channel likely reflects a different ice-flow pattern, with ice-sheet reaching the continental shelf edge only within
the ice trough (ice stream).
Keywords High salinity shelf water - Turbidity currents - Glacio-marine depositional processes - Marine isotopic stage 11 - Glacial dynamic changes