The role of ocean and atmospheric dynamics in the marine-based collapse of the last Eurasian Ice Sheet

Information from former ice sheets may provide important context for understanding the response of today’s ice sheets to forcing mechanisms. Here we present a reconstruction of the last deglaciation of marine sectors of the Eurasian Ice Sheet, emphasising how the retreat of the Norwegian Channel and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Communications Earth & Environment
Main Authors: Sejrup, Hans Petter, Hjelstuen, Berit Oline Blihovde, Patton, Henry, Esteves, Mariana, Winsborrow, Monica, Rasmussen, Tine Lander, Andreassen, Karin Marie, Hubbard, Alun Lloyd
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Nature 2022
Subjects:
Barents Sea
Svalbard
Barents Sea ice streams
Fennoscandian
Ice Sheet
Nordic Seas
Sea ice
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2997701
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00447-0
Description
Summary:Information from former ice sheets may provide important context for understanding the response of today’s ice sheets to forcing mechanisms. Here we present a reconstruction of the last deglaciation of marine sectors of the Eurasian Ice Sheet, emphasising how the retreat of the Norwegian Channel and the Barents Sea ice streams led to separation of the British-Irish and Fennoscandian ice sheets at c. 18.700 and of the Kara-Barents Sea-Svalbard and Fennoscandian ice sheets between 16.000 and 15.000 years ago. Combined with ice sheet modelling and palaeoceanographic data, our reconstruction shows that the deglaciation, from a peak volume of 20 m of sea-level rise equivalent, was mainly driven by temperature forced surface mass balance in the south, and by Nordic Seas oceanic conditions in the north. Our results highlight the nonlinearity in the response of an ice sheet to forcing and the significance of ocean-ice-atmosphere dynamics in assessing the fate of contemporary ice sheets publishedVersion

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