Widespread collapse of the Ross Ice Shelf during the late Holocene

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Yokoyama, Yusuke, Anderson, John B., Yamane, Masako, Simkins, Lauren M., Miyairi, Yosuke, Yamazaki, Takahiro, Koizumi, Mamito, Suga, Hisami, Kusahara, Kazuya, Prothro, Lindsay, Hasumi, Hiroyasu, Southon, John R., Ohkouchi, Naohiko
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: National Academy of Sciences 2016
• Subjects: Physical Sciences; Antarctic; Ross Ice Shelf; Ross Sea; The Antarctic; Antarc*; ice core; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4780607/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26884201; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1516908113

The Ross Sea is a major drainage basin for the Antarctic Ice Sheet and contains the world’s largest ice shelf. Newly acquired swath bathymetry data and sediment cores provide evidence for two episodes of ice-shelf collapse. Two novel geochemical proxies, compound specific radiocarbon dating and radiogenic beryllium (10Be), constrain the timing of the most recent and widespread (∼280,000 km2) breakup as having occurred in the late Holocene. Three-dimensional ice-shelf/ocean modeling results and comparison with ice-core records indicate that oceanic and atmospheric warming caused ice-shelf collapse.