The mineral dust of continental origin windblown to the East Antarctic Plateau has been studied for its geographical provenance and variability during the Quaternary. Four deep ice cores [EPICA-Dome C (75° 06'S, 123° 21'E), Dome B (77° 05' S, 94° 55' E), Vostok (78° S, 106° E) and Komsomolskaia (74° 05' S, 97° 29' E) have been investigated. Dust provenance in glacial and interglacial epochs has been identified through the 87Sr/86Sr versus 143Nd/144Nd isotopic signature of ice core dust and sediments from the Potential Source Areas (PSA) of the Southern Hemisphere. The isotopic method has been refined with respect to previous studies. Dust concentration and size distribution measurements have been performed at high temporal resolution in order to examine the long-term and short-term variability of dust flux, from which important information about the conditions at the source region(s), the hydrological cycle and the transport patterns can be inferred. For all East Antarctic sites investigated, dust originates from the southern South American regions of the Pampas and Patagonia in glacial times, but during warm interglacial periods an additional source probably contributed. The dust input also has proved to be remarkably similar between the different sites, and shows clear relationship with environmental conditions at the source regions. However, such an apparent uniformity of dust flux nests striking differences in dust transport, particularly during the Last Glacial Maximum. The reorganization of atmospheric circulation in the circumantarctic during the last climatic transition generated asynchronous and even opposite changes in transport patterns in different sectors of the Antarctic Plateau. During the Deglaciation and the Holocene epochs, millennial and secular scale pulsations in dust advection to the Plateau are omnipresent. From site to site, periodicities are the same but the phasing of the variations is different. Such rhythm suggests a circumpolar displacement of ocean-sea iceatmosphere anomalies at these timescales, a wavering effect reminding that of present-day interannual propagation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave. The rhythm of dust advection raises several questions about the modes of variability of the Southern Ocean and its capacity to propagate oceanic anomalies through the three world oceans at various timescales.
