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 108 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 occur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Scherer, Reed P., Aldahan, Ala, Tulaczyk, Slawek, Possnert, Göran, Engelhardt, Hermann, Kamb, Barclay
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 1998
Subjects:
Antarctic
West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Antarc*
Ice Sheet
Ice Stream B
Online Access:https://authors.library.caltech.edu/45887/
https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20140522-095331661
Description
Summary:Some glacial sediment samples recovered from beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet at ice stream B contain Quaternary diatoms and up to 108 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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