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: | http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/107790 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 |
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ftimperialcol:oai:spiral.imperial.ac.uk:10044/1/107790 2023-12-17T10:18:21+01:00 Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene Balco, G Brown, N Nichols, K Venturelli, RA Adams, J Braddock, S Campbell, S Goehring, B Johnson, JS Rood, DH Wilcken, K Hall, B Woodward, J 2023-03-26 http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/107790 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 English eng Copernicus Publications The Cryosphere 1994-0416 http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/107790 doi:10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 © Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 1801 1787 Journal Article 2023 ftimperialcol https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 2023-11-23T23:43:25Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet The Cryosphere Imperial College London: Spiral Antarctic Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet The Cryosphere 17 4 1787 1801 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Imperial College London: Spiral |
op_collection_id |
ftimperialcol |
language |
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 |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Balco, G Brown, N Nichols, K Venturelli, RA Adams, J Braddock, S Campbell, S Goehring, B Johnson, JS Rood, DH Wilcken, K Hall, B Woodward, J |
spellingShingle |
Balco, G Brown, N Nichols, K Venturelli, RA Adams, J Braddock, S Campbell, S Goehring, B Johnson, JS Rood, DH Wilcken, K Hall, B Woodward, J Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene |
author_facet |
Balco, G Brown, N Nichols, K Venturelli, RA Adams, J Braddock, S Campbell, S Goehring, B Johnson, JS Rood, DH Wilcken, K Hall, B Woodward, J |
author_sort |
Balco, G |
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 |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/107790 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 |
geographic |
Antarctic Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Amundsen Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet The Cryosphere |
op_source |
1801 1787 |
op_relation |
The Cryosphere 1994-0416 http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/107790 doi:10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 |
op_rights |
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1787-2023 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1787 |
op_container_end_page |
1801 |
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1785559135574556672 |