Transient ice sheet response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet during the Last Interglacial - Wilkes Basin collapse scenarios

• Main Author: Sutter, Johannes
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2020
• Subjects: Antarctica; File format; File name; File size; Ice Sheet Modelling; Last Interglacial; MISI; sea level; Uniform resource locator/link to file; Antarc*; Antarctic; ice core; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.918108; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.918108

The response of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet to global warming represents a major source of uncertainty in sea level projections. Thinning of the East Antarctic George V and Sabrina Coast ice-cover is currently taking place, and regional ice-sheet instability episodes might have been triggered in past warm climates. However, the magnitude of ice retreat in the past can not yet be quantitatively derived from paleo-proxy records alone. We propose that a runaway retreat of the George V coast grounding line and subsequent instability of the Wilkes Basin ice-sheet would either leave a clear imprint on the water isotope composition in the Talos Dome region or prohibit a Talos Dome ice-core record from the Last Interglacial altogether. Testing this hypothesis our ice sheet model simulations suggest, that Wilkes Basin ice-sheet retreat remained relatively limited during the Last Interglacial and provide a constraint on Last Interglacial East Antarctic grounding line stability.