Pingos in Antarctica

Abstract

Pingos, or ice-cored mounds, are described for the first time from Antarctica and for the first time on ice-cored moraine. Seven pingos up to 4 m high and 12 m in diameter occur on former dering of lakes on the moraine exposes water-saturated sediments to freezing and consequent lake sediments on Flanders Moraine, Vestfold Hills, Antarctica (68°40'S 78°00'E). Lateral wandering formation of closed-system pingos. The pingos are probably only a few hundred years old. The apparent absence of pingo scars in the Southern Hemisphere may be due to lack of suitable substrates, rather than to unsuitable climatic conditions.