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 geolog...
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ftkeeleuniv:oai:eprints.keele.ac.uk:4031 2023-07-30T03:58:12+02:00 Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability Jones, RS Mackintosh, AN Norton, KP Golledge, NR Fogwill, CJ Kubik, PW Christl, M Greenwood, SL 2015-11-26 text https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/4031/ https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/4031/1/Rapid%20Holocene%20thinning%20of%20an%20East%20Antarctic%20outlet%20glacier%20driven%20by%20marine%20ice%20sheet%20instability.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9910 en eng Nature Publishing Group https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/4031/1/Rapid%20Holocene%20thinning%20of%20an%20East%20Antarctic%20outlet%20glacier%20driven%20by%20marine%20ice%20sheet%20instability.pdf Jones, RS, Mackintosh, AN, Norton, KP, Golledge, NR, Fogwill, CJ orcid:0000-0002-6471-1106 , Kubik, PW, Christl, M and Greenwood, SL (2015) Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability. Nature Communications, 6. 8910 -?. doi:10.1038/ncomms9910 cc_by_4 GB Physical geography Article PeerReviewed 2015 ftkeeleuniv https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9910 2023-07-10T21:16:08Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Keele University: Keele Research Repository Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet Nature Communications 6 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Keele University: Keele Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftkeeleuniv |
language |
English |
topic |
GB Physical geography |
spellingShingle |
GB Physical geography Jones, RS Mackintosh, AN Norton, KP Golledge, NR Fogwill, CJ Kubik, PW Christl, M Greenwood, SL Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability |
topic_facet |
GB Physical geography |
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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jones, RS Mackintosh, AN Norton, KP Golledge, NR Fogwill, CJ Kubik, PW Christl, M Greenwood, SL |
author_facet |
Jones, RS Mackintosh, AN Norton, KP Golledge, NR Fogwill, CJ Kubik, PW Christl, M Greenwood, SL |
author_sort |
Jones, RS |
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 Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/4031/ https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/4031/1/Rapid%20Holocene%20thinning%20of%20an%20East%20Antarctic%20outlet%20glacier%20driven%20by%20marine%20ice%20sheet%20instability.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9910 |
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_relation |
https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/4031/1/Rapid%20Holocene%20thinning%20of%20an%20East%20Antarctic%20outlet%20glacier%20driven%20by%20marine%20ice%20sheet%20instability.pdf Jones, RS, Mackintosh, AN, Norton, KP, Golledge, NR, Fogwill, CJ orcid:0000-0002-6471-1106 , Kubik, PW, Christl, M and Greenwood, SL (2015) Rapid Holocene thinning of an East Antarctic outlet glacier driven by marine ice sheet instability. Nature Communications, 6. 8910 -?. doi:10.1038/ncomms9910 |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9910 |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1772821074248990720 |