Ice sheet–free West Antarctica during peak early Oligocene glaciation

One of Earth’s most fundamental climate shifts, the greenhouse-icehouse transition 34 million years ago, initiated Antarctic ice sheet buildup, influencing global climate until today. However, the extent of the ice sheet during the Early Oligocene Glacial Maximum (~33.7 to 33.2 million years ago) th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Klages, Johann Philipp, Hillenbrand, C-D, Bohaty, SM, Salzmann, U, Bickert, T, Lohmann, G, Knahl, HS, Gierz, P, Niu, L, Titschack, J, Kuhn, G, Frederichs, T, Müller, J, Bauersachs, T, Larter, RD, Hochmuth, K, Ehrmann, W, Nehrke, G, Rodríguez-Tovar, FJ, Schmiedl, G, Spezzaferri, S, Läufer, A, Lisker, F, van de Flierdt, T, Eisenhauer, A, Uenzelmann-Neben, G, Esper, O, Smith, JA, Pälike, H, Spiegel, C, Dziadek, R, Ronge, TA, Freudenthal, T, Gohl, K
Other Authors: Smith, H Jesse
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2024
Subjects:
Antarc*
Antarctic
Antarctica
Ice Sheet
West Antarctica
Online Access:https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58877/
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58877/7/Klages_etal_2024_Ice_sheet-free_West_Antarctica_during_EOGM_Science.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adj3931
https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.89ef8a99-ab2c-4b1f-a93a-a0c99560079f
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Summary:One of Earth’s most fundamental climate shifts, the greenhouse-icehouse transition 34 million years ago, initiated Antarctic ice sheet buildup, influencing global climate until today. However, the extent of the ice sheet during the Early Oligocene Glacial Maximum (~33.7 to 33.2 million years ago) that immediately followed this transition—a critical knowledge gap for assessing feedbacks between permanently glaciated areas and early Cenozoic global climate reorganization—is uncertain. In this work, we present shallow-marine drilling data constraining earliest Oligocene environmental conditions on West Antarctica’s Pacific margin—a key region for understanding Antarctic ice sheet evolution. These data indicate a cool-temperate environment with mild ocean and air temperatures that prevented West Antarctic Ice Sheet formation. Climate–ice sheet modeling corroborates a highly asymmetric Antarctic ice sheet, thereby revealing its differential regional response to past and future climatic change.

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