Reconstruction of changes in the Amundsen Sea and Bellingshausen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet since the Last Glacial Maximum

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dc.citation.firstpage55en_US
dc.citation.journalTitleQuaternary Science Reviewsen_US
dc.citation.lastpage86en_US
dc.citation.volumeNumber100en_US
dc.contributor.authorLarter, Robert D.en_US
dc.contributor.authorAnderson, John B.en_US
dc.contributor.authorGraham, Alastair G.C.en_US
dc.contributor.authorGohl, Karstenen_US
dc.contributor.authorHillenbrand, Claus-Dieteren_US
dc.contributor.authorJakobsson, Martinen_US
dc.contributor.authorJohnson, Joanne S.en_US
dc.contributor.authorKuhn, Gerharden_US
dc.contributor.authorNitsche, Frank O.en_US
dc.contributor.authorSmith, James A.en_US
dc.contributor.authorWitus, Alexandra E.en_US
dc.contributor.authorBentley, Michael J.en_US
dc.contributor.authorDowdeswell, Julianen_US
dc.date.accessioned2016-01-28T22:50:35Z
dc.date.available2016-01-28T22:50:35Z
dc.date.issued2014en_US
dc.description.abstractMarine and terrestrial geological and marine geophysical data that constrain deglaciation since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) of the sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) draining into the Amundsen Sea and Bellingshausen Sea have been collated and used as the basis for a set of time-slice reconstructions. The drainage basins in these sectors constitute a little more than one-quarter of the area of the WAIS, but account for about one-third of its surface accumulation. Their mass balance is becoming increasingly negative, and therefore they account for an even larger fraction of current WAIS discharge. If all of the ice in these sectors of the WAIS were discharged to the ocean, global sea level would rise by ca 2 m. There is compelling evidence that grounding lines of palaeo-ice streams were at, or close to, the continental shelf edge along the Amundsen Sea and Bellingshausen Sea margins during the last glacial period. However, the few cosmogenic surface exposure ages and ice core data available from the interior of West Antarctica indicate that ice surface elevations there have changed little since the LGM. In the few areas from which cosmogenic surface exposure ages have been determined near the margin of the ice sheet, they generally suggest that there has been a gradual decrease in ice surface elevation since pre-Holocene times. Radiocarbon dates from glacimarine and the earliest seasonally open marine sediments in continental shelf cores that have been interpreted as providing approximate ages for post-LGM grounding-line retreat indicate different trajectories of palaeo-ice stream recession in the Amundsen Sea and Bellingshausen Sea embayments. The areas were probably subject to similar oceanic, atmospheric and eustatic forcing, in which case the differences are probably largely a consequence of how topographic and geological factors have affected ice flow, and of topographic influences on snow accumulation and warm water inflow across the continental shelf. Pauses in ice retreat are recorded where there are “bottle necks” in cross-shelf troughs in both embayments. The highest retreat rates presently constrained by radiocarbon dates from sediment cores are found where the grounding line retreated across deep basins on the inner shelf in the Amundsen Sea, which is consistent with the marine ice sheet instability hypothesis. Deglacial ages from the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) and Eltanin Bay (southern Bellingshausen Sea) indicate that the ice sheet had already retreated close to its modern limits by early Holocene time, which suggests that the rapid ice thinning, flow acceleration, and grounding line retreat observed in this sector over recent decades are unusual in the context of the past 10,000 years.en_US
dc.identifier.citationLarter, Robert D., Anderson, John B., Graham, Alastair G.C., et al.. "Reconstruction of changes in the Amundsen Sea and Bellingshausen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet since the Last Glacial Maximum." <i>Quaternary Science Reviews,</i> 100, (2014) Elsevier: 55-86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.10.016.
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.10.016en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/88244
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.rightsThis is an open access article under the CC BY license.en_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/en_US
dc.subject.keywordIce sheeten_US
dc.subject.keywordLast Glacial Maximumen_US
dc.subject.keywordHoloceneen_US
dc.subject.keywordIce streamen_US
dc.subject.keywordGrounding lineen_US
dc.subject.keywordRadiocarbonen_US
dc.subject.keywordCosmogenic isotopeen_US
dc.subject.keywordSurface exposure ageen_US
dc.subject.keywordMultibeam swath bathymetryen_US
dc.subject.keywordSedimenten_US
dc.subject.keywordGlacimarineen_US
dc.subject.keywordDiamictonen_US
dc.subject.keywordContinental shelfen_US
dc.subject.keywordCircumpolar deep wateren_US
dc.subject.keywordSubglacial meltwateren_US
dc.subject.keywordSea levelen_US
dc.titleReconstruction of changes in the Amundsen Sea and Bellingshausen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet since the Last Glacial Maximumen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.type.dcmiTexten_US
dc.type.publicationpublisher versionen_US
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