Major Ice Sheet Change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica Over the Last 5,000 Years
Until recently, little was known about the Weddell Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. In the last 10 years, a variety of expeditions and numerical modelling experiments have improved knowledge of its glaciology, glacial geology and tectonic setting. Two of the sector's largest ice stre...
Published in: | Reviews of Geophysics |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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American Geophysical Union
2019
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Online Access: | https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/ https://doi.org/10.1029/2019RG000651 https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/8/2019RG000651.pdf https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/1/Siegert_et_al-2019-Reviews_of_Geophysics.pdf |
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ftunivnorthumb:oai:nrl.northumbria.ac.uk:41561 2023-05-15T13:41:26+02:00 Major Ice Sheet Change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica Over the Last 5,000 Years Siegert, Martin J. Kingslake, Jonathan Ross, Neil Whitehouse, Pippa L. Woodward, John Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Bentley, Michael J. Winter, Kate Wearing, Martin Hein, Andrew S. Jeofry, Hafeez Sugden, David E. 2019-12-01 text https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/ https://doi.org/10.1029/2019RG000651 https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/8/2019RG000651.pdf https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/1/Siegert_et_al-2019-Reviews_of_Geophysics.pdf en eng American Geophysical Union https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/8/2019RG000651.pdf https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/1/Siegert_et_al-2019-Reviews_of_Geophysics.pdf Siegert, Martin J., Kingslake, Jonathan, Ross, Neil, Whitehouse, Pippa L., Woodward, John, Jamieson, Stewart S. R., Bentley, Michael J., Winter, Kate, Wearing, Martin, Hein, Andrew S., Jeofry, Hafeez and Sugden, David E. (2019) Major Ice Sheet Change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica Over the Last 5,000 Years. Reviews of Geophysics, 57 (4). pp. 1197-1223. ISSN 8755-1209 cc_by_4_0 CC-BY F600 Geology F700 Ocean Sciences F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences Article PeerReviewed 2019 ftunivnorthumb https://doi.org/10.1029/2019RG000651 2022-09-25T06:11:09Z Until recently, little was known about the Weddell Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. In the last 10 years, a variety of expeditions and numerical modelling experiments have improved knowledge of its glaciology, glacial geology and tectonic setting. Two of the sector's largest ice streams rest on a steep reverse‐sloping bed yet, despite being vulnerable to change, satellite observations show contemporary stability. There is clear evidence for major ice sheet reconfiguration in the last few thousand years, however. Knowing precisely how and when the ice sheet has changed in the past would allow us to better understand whether it is now at risk. Two competing hypotheses have been established for this glacial history. In one, the ice sheet retreated and thinned progressively from its Last Glacial Maximum position. Retreat stopped at, or very near, the present position in the Late Holocene. Alternatively, in the Late Holocene, the ice sheet retreated significantly upstream of its present grounding line and then advanced to today's location due to glacial isostatic adjustment and ice shelf and ice rise buttressing. Both hypotheses point to data and theory in their support yet neither has been unequivocally tested or falsified. Here we review geophysical evidence to determine how each hypothesis has been formed, where there are inconsistencies in the respective glacial histories, how they may be tested or reconciled, and what new evidence is required to reach a common model for the Late Holocene ice sheet history of the Weddell Sea sector of West Antarctica. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Weddell Sea West Antarctica Northumbria University, Newcastle: Northumbria Research Link (NRL) Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet West Antarctica Reviews of Geophysics 57 4 1197 1223 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Northumbria University, Newcastle: Northumbria Research Link (NRL) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivnorthumb |
language |
English |
topic |
F600 Geology F700 Ocean Sciences F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences |
spellingShingle |
F600 Geology F700 Ocean Sciences F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences Siegert, Martin J. Kingslake, Jonathan Ross, Neil Whitehouse, Pippa L. Woodward, John Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Bentley, Michael J. Winter, Kate Wearing, Martin Hein, Andrew S. Jeofry, Hafeez Sugden, David E. Major Ice Sheet Change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica Over the Last 5,000 Years |
topic_facet |
F600 Geology F700 Ocean Sciences F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences |
description |
Until recently, little was known about the Weddell Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. In the last 10 years, a variety of expeditions and numerical modelling experiments have improved knowledge of its glaciology, glacial geology and tectonic setting. Two of the sector's largest ice streams rest on a steep reverse‐sloping bed yet, despite being vulnerable to change, satellite observations show contemporary stability. There is clear evidence for major ice sheet reconfiguration in the last few thousand years, however. Knowing precisely how and when the ice sheet has changed in the past would allow us to better understand whether it is now at risk. Two competing hypotheses have been established for this glacial history. In one, the ice sheet retreated and thinned progressively from its Last Glacial Maximum position. Retreat stopped at, or very near, the present position in the Late Holocene. Alternatively, in the Late Holocene, the ice sheet retreated significantly upstream of its present grounding line and then advanced to today's location due to glacial isostatic adjustment and ice shelf and ice rise buttressing. Both hypotheses point to data and theory in their support yet neither has been unequivocally tested or falsified. Here we review geophysical evidence to determine how each hypothesis has been formed, where there are inconsistencies in the respective glacial histories, how they may be tested or reconciled, and what new evidence is required to reach a common model for the Late Holocene ice sheet history of the Weddell Sea sector of West Antarctica. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Siegert, Martin J. Kingslake, Jonathan Ross, Neil Whitehouse, Pippa L. Woodward, John Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Bentley, Michael J. Winter, Kate Wearing, Martin Hein, Andrew S. Jeofry, Hafeez Sugden, David E. |
author_facet |
Siegert, Martin J. Kingslake, Jonathan Ross, Neil Whitehouse, Pippa L. Woodward, John Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Bentley, Michael J. Winter, Kate Wearing, Martin Hein, Andrew S. Jeofry, Hafeez Sugden, David E. |
author_sort |
Siegert, Martin J. |
title |
Major Ice Sheet Change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica Over the Last 5,000 Years |
title_short |
Major Ice Sheet Change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica Over the Last 5,000 Years |
title_full |
Major Ice Sheet Change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica Over the Last 5,000 Years |
title_fullStr |
Major Ice Sheet Change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica Over the Last 5,000 Years |
title_full_unstemmed |
Major Ice Sheet Change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica Over the Last 5,000 Years |
title_sort |
major ice sheet change in the weddell sea sector of west antarctica over the last 5,000 years |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/ https://doi.org/10.1029/2019RG000651 https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/8/2019RG000651.pdf https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/1/Siegert_et_al-2019-Reviews_of_Geophysics.pdf |
geographic |
Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Weddell Weddell Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet West Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Weddell Sea West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Weddell Sea West Antarctica |
op_relation |
https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/8/2019RG000651.pdf https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41561/1/Siegert_et_al-2019-Reviews_of_Geophysics.pdf Siegert, Martin J., Kingslake, Jonathan, Ross, Neil, Whitehouse, Pippa L., Woodward, John, Jamieson, Stewart S. R., Bentley, Michael J., Winter, Kate, Wearing, Martin, Hein, Andrew S., Jeofry, Hafeez and Sugden, David E. (2019) Major Ice Sheet Change in the Weddell Sea Sector of West Antarctica Over the Last 5,000 Years. Reviews of Geophysics, 57 (4). pp. 1197-1223. ISSN 8755-1209 |
op_rights |
cc_by_4_0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019RG000651 |
container_title |
Reviews of Geophysics |
container_volume |
57 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
1197 |
op_container_end_page |
1223 |
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1766150814520311808 |