Pleistocene Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Some glacial sediment samples recovered from beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet at ice stream B contain Quaternary diatoms and up to 10 8 atoms of beryllium-10 per gram. Other samples contain no Quaternary diatoms and only background levels of beryllium-10 (less than 10 6 atoms per gram). The occu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Scherer, Reed P., Aldahan, Ala, Tulaczyk, Slawek, Possnert, Gòˆran, Engelhardt, Hermann, Kamb, Barclay
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1998
Subjects:
Antarctic
West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Antarc*
Ice Sheet
Ice Stream B
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.281.5373.82
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.281.5373.82
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Summary:Some glacial sediment samples recovered from beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet at ice stream B contain Quaternary diatoms and up to 10 8 atoms of beryllium-10 per gram. Other samples contain no Quaternary diatoms and only background levels of beryllium-10 (less than 10 6 atoms per gram). The occurrence of young diatoms and high concentrations of beryllium-10 beneath grounded ice indicates that the Ross Embayment was an open marine environment after a late Pleistocene collapse of the marine ice sheet.

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