Nature of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet during the Pliocene: geological evidence and modelling results compared

• Published in: Earth-Science Reviews
• Main Authors: Smellie, John L., Haywood, Alan M., Hillenbrand, Claus-Dieter, Lunt, Daniel J., Valdes, Paul J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier 2009
• Subjects: Meteorology and Climatology; Glaciology; Earth Sciences; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarc*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/11282/; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2009.03.005

In this paper, we examine the nature of the Pliocene Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet by comparing the terrestrial and marine geological records of the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding sea floor with estimated net snow accumulation in the region derived from numerical palaeoclimate model experiments. Pliocene geological data and our new modelling results are consistent and mutually supportive in suggesting that an ice sheet was present even during the warmest episodes of the Pliocene. The combined results suggest that the ice sheet in the Antarctic Peninsula is more robust to globally warmer conditions than is generally assumed, at least up to the climatic limits examined in our study. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.