Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene
Cosmogenic-nuclide concentrations in subglacial bedrock cores show that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) at a site between Thwaites and Pope glaciers was at least 35 m thinner than present in the past several thousand years and then subsequently thickened. This is important because of concern tha...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/1787/2023/ |
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:tc106062 2023-06-11T04:03:33+02:00 Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene Balco, Greg Brown, Nathan Nichols, Keir Venturelli, Ryan A. Adams, Jonathan Braddock, Scott Campbell, Seth Goehring, Brent Johnson, Joanne S. Rood, Dylan H. Wilcken, Klaus Hall, Brenda Woodward, John 2023-04-28 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/1787/2023/ eng eng doi:10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/1787/2023/ eISSN: 1994-0424 Text 2023 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 2023-05-01T16:23:11Z Cosmogenic-nuclide concentrations in subglacial bedrock cores show that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) at a site between Thwaites and Pope glaciers was at least 35 m thinner than present in the past several thousand years and then subsequently thickened. This is important because of concern that present thinning and grounding line retreat at these and nearby glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment may irreversibly lead to deglaciation of significant portions of the WAIS, with decimeter- to meter-scale sea level rise within decades to centuries. A past episode of ice sheet thinning that took place in a similar, although not identical, climate was not irreversible. We propose that the past thinning–thickening cycle was due to a glacioisostatic rebound feedback, similar to that invoked as a possible stabilizing mechanism for current grounding line retreat, in which isostatic uplift caused by Early Holocene thinning led to relative sea level fall favoring grounding line advance. Text Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Amundsen Sea Antarctic West Antarctic Ice Sheet The Cryosphere 17 4 1787 1801 |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
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English |
description |
Cosmogenic-nuclide concentrations in subglacial bedrock cores show that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) at a site between Thwaites and Pope glaciers was at least 35 m thinner than present in the past several thousand years and then subsequently thickened. This is important because of concern that present thinning and grounding line retreat at these and nearby glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment may irreversibly lead to deglaciation of significant portions of the WAIS, with decimeter- to meter-scale sea level rise within decades to centuries. A past episode of ice sheet thinning that took place in a similar, although not identical, climate was not irreversible. We propose that the past thinning–thickening cycle was due to a glacioisostatic rebound feedback, similar to that invoked as a possible stabilizing mechanism for current grounding line retreat, in which isostatic uplift caused by Early Holocene thinning led to relative sea level fall favoring grounding line advance. |
format |
Text |
author |
Balco, Greg Brown, Nathan Nichols, Keir Venturelli, Ryan A. Adams, Jonathan Braddock, Scott Campbell, Seth Goehring, Brent Johnson, Joanne S. Rood, Dylan H. Wilcken, Klaus Hall, Brenda Woodward, John |
spellingShingle |
Balco, Greg Brown, Nathan Nichols, Keir Venturelli, Ryan A. Adams, Jonathan Braddock, Scott Campbell, Seth Goehring, Brent Johnson, Joanne S. Rood, Dylan H. Wilcken, Klaus Hall, Brenda Woodward, John Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene |
author_facet |
Balco, Greg Brown, Nathan Nichols, Keir Venturelli, Ryan A. Adams, Jonathan Braddock, Scott Campbell, Seth Goehring, Brent Johnson, Joanne S. Rood, Dylan H. Wilcken, Klaus Hall, Brenda Woodward, John |
author_sort |
Balco, Greg |
title |
Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene |
title_short |
Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene |
title_full |
Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene |
title_fullStr |
Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene |
title_full_unstemmed |
Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene |
title_sort |
reversible ice sheet thinning in the amundsen sea embayment during the late holocene |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/1787/2023/ |
geographic |
Amundsen Sea Antarctic West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
geographic_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarctic West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
op_source |
eISSN: 1994-0424 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/1787/2023/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 |
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The Cryosphere |
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17 |
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4 |
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1787 |
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1801 |
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1768380328607481856 |