Glacial matters, detail

A cascading glacier of refuse, from ceiling to floor, greets the viewers as they step into Bozo Ink’s latest installation. Amongst other abjections fridges capture glaciated moments with perspex protrusions, and projected figures that move, wriggle and incubate inside of them. Fridge becomes womb, fridge as technological hubris, fridge is a stillborn archive. Includes the film : 'Yeti Caught in the Headlights'

Granitic coastal geomorphology: Applying integrated terrestrial and bathymetric LiDAR with multibeam sonar to examine coastal landscape evolution

Coasts composed of resistant lithologies such as granite are generally highly resistant to erosion. They tend to evolve over multiple sea level cycles with highstands acting to remove subaerially weathered material. This often results in a landscape dominated by plunging cliffs with shore platforms rarely occurring. The long-term evolution of these landforms means that throughout the Quaternary these coasts have been variably exposed to different sea level elevations which means erosion may have been concentrated at different elevations from today. Investigations of the submarine landscape of granitic coasts have however been hindered by an inability to accurately image the nearshore morphology. Only with the advent of multibeam sonar and aerial laser surveying can topographic data now be seamlessly collected from above and below sea level. This study tests the utility of these techniques and finds that very accurate measurements can be made of the nearshore thereby allowing researchers to study the submarine profile with the same accuracy as the subaerial profile. From a combination of terrestrial and marine LiDAR data with multibeam sonar data, it is found that the morphology of granite domes is virtually unaffected by erosion at sea level. It appears that evolution of these landscapes on the coast is a very slow process with modern sea level acting only to remove subaerially weathered debris. The size and orientation of the joints determines the erosional potential of the granite. Where joints are densely spaced (<2 m apart) or the bedrock is highly weathered can semi-horizontal surfaces form.

Holocene record of Tuggerah Lake estuary development on the Australian east coast: sedimentary responses to sea-level fluctuations and climate variability

We investigated the Holocene palaeo-environmental record of the Tuggerah Lake barrier estuary on the south-east coast of Australia to determine the influence of local, regional and global environmental changes on estuary development. Using multi-proxy approaches, we identified significant down-core variation in sediment cores relating to sea-level rise and regional climate change. Following erosion of the antecedent land surface during the post-glacial marine transgression, sediment began to accumulate at the more seaward location at ~8500. years before present, some 1500. years prior to barrier emplacement and ~4000. years earlier than at the landward site. The delay in sediment accumulation at the landward site was a consequence of exposure to wave action prior to barrier emplacement, and due to high river flows of the mid-Holocene post-barrier emplacement. As a consequence of the mid-Holocene reduction in river flows, coupled with a moderate decline in sea-level, the lake experienced major changes in conditions at ~4000. years before present. The entrance channel connecting the lake with the ocean became periodically constricted, producing cyclic alternation between intervals of fluvial- and marine-dominated conditions. Overall, this study provides a detailed, multi-proxy investigation of the physical evolution of Tuggerah Lake with causative environmental processes that have influenced development of the estuary.