Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability
Outlet glaciers grounded on a bed that deepens inland and extends below sea level are potentially vulnerable to ‘marine ice sheet instability’. This instability, which may lead to runaway ice loss, has been simulated in models, but its consequences have not been directly observed in geological recor...
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ftethz:oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/107979 2023-08-20T04:01:51+02:00 Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability Jones, R.S. Mackintosh, Andrew N. Norton, Kevin P. Golledge, Nicholas R. Fogwill, Chris J. Kubik, Peter W. Christl, Marcus id_orcid:0 000-0002-3131-6652 Greenwood, Sarah L. 2015 application/application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/107979 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000107979 en eng Nature info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/ncomms9910 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000366378900012 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/107979 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000107979 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Nature Communications, 6 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2015 ftethz https://doi.org/20.500.11850/10797910.3929/ethz-b-00010797910.1038/ncomms9910 2023-07-30T23:48:21Z Outlet glaciers grounded on a bed that deepens inland and extends below sea level are potentially vulnerable to ‘marine ice sheet instability’. This instability, which may lead to runaway ice loss, has been simulated in models, but its consequences have not been directly observed in geological records. Here we provide new surface-exposure ages from an outlet of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that reveal rapid glacier thinning occurred approximately 7,000 years ago, in the absence of large environmental changes. Glacier thinning persisted for more than two and a half centuries, resulting in hundreds of metres of ice loss. Numerical simulations indicate that ice surface drawdown accelerated when the otherwise steadily retreating glacier encountered a bedrock trough. Together, the geological reconstruction and numerical simulations suggest that centennial-scale glacier thinning arose from unstable grounding line retreat. Capturing these instability processes in ice sheet models is important for predicting Antarctica’s future contribution to sea level change. ISSN:2041-1723 Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet ETH Zürich Research Collection Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet |
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Open Polar |
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ETH Zürich Research Collection |
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language |
English |
description |
Outlet glaciers grounded on a bed that deepens inland and extends below sea level are potentially vulnerable to ‘marine ice sheet instability’. This instability, which may lead to runaway ice loss, has been simulated in models, but its consequences have not been directly observed in geological records. Here we provide new surface-exposure ages from an outlet of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that reveal rapid glacier thinning occurred approximately 7,000 years ago, in the absence of large environmental changes. Glacier thinning persisted for more than two and a half centuries, resulting in hundreds of metres of ice loss. Numerical simulations indicate that ice surface drawdown accelerated when the otherwise steadily retreating glacier encountered a bedrock trough. Together, the geological reconstruction and numerical simulations suggest that centennial-scale glacier thinning arose from unstable grounding line retreat. Capturing these instability processes in ice sheet models is important for predicting Antarctica’s future contribution to sea level change. ISSN:2041-1723 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jones, R.S. Mackintosh, Andrew N. Norton, Kevin P. Golledge, Nicholas R. Fogwill, Chris J. Kubik, Peter W. Christl, Marcus id_orcid:0 000-0002-3131-6652 Greenwood, Sarah L. |
spellingShingle |
Jones, R.S. Mackintosh, Andrew N. Norton, Kevin P. Golledge, Nicholas R. Fogwill, Chris J. Kubik, Peter W. Christl, Marcus id_orcid:0 000-0002-3131-6652 Greenwood, Sarah L. Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability |
author_facet |
Jones, R.S. Mackintosh, Andrew N. Norton, Kevin P. Golledge, Nicholas R. Fogwill, Chris J. Kubik, Peter W. Christl, Marcus id_orcid:0 000-0002-3131-6652 Greenwood, Sarah L. |
author_sort |
Jones, R.S. |
title |
Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability |
title_short |
Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability |
title_full |
Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability |
title_fullStr |
Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability |
title_sort |
rapid holocene thinning of an east antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability |
publisher |
Nature |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/107979 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000107979 |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Nature Communications, 6 |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/ncomms9910 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000366378900012 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/107979 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000107979 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11850/10797910.3929/ethz-b-00010797910.1038/ncomms9910 |
_version_ |
1774712210507956224 |