Dynamic Antarctic ice sheet during the early to mid-Miocene

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Gasson, Edward, DeConto, Robert M., Pollard, David, Levy, Richard H.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: National Academy of Sciences 2016
• Subjects: Physical Sciences; Antarctic; Ross Sea; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4822592/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26903645; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1516130113

Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are projected to exceed 500 ppm in the coming decades. It is likely that the last time such levels of atmospheric CO2 were reached was during the Miocene, for which there is geologic data for large-scale advance and retreat of the Antarctic ice sheet. Simulating Antarctic ice sheet retreat is something that ice sheet models have struggled to achieve because of a strong hysteresis effect. Here, a number of developments in our modeling approach mean that we are able to simulate large-scale variability of the Antarctic ice sheet for the first time. Our results are also consistent with a recently recovered sedimentological record from the Ross Sea presented in a companion article.