rise in frequency of surface melting at siple dome through the holocene evidence for increasing marine influence on the climate of west antarctica 1 a new melt layer history from siple dome west antarctica indicates notable late holocene summertime warming visual stratigraphic analyses of the 1004 m ice core identified 62 years with melt layers melting events began around 11 7 ka followed by a period of no melting from 8 8 6 6 ka melt layer frequency increased from 6 6 ka to the present with the 1000 year average melt layer frequency reaching a maximum of 2 at 0 8 ka we use our millennial scale archive of melt events as a unique seasonal paleothermometer to elucidate changes in west antarctic holocene summer climate our calibration suggests the change in melt frequency from 0 to 2 may represent a summer temperature increase of 2 c from the middle to late holocene this temperature change cannot be explained entirely by local change in ice elevation or summer insolation and is in contrast to east antarctic climate records which show peak warmth in the early holocene followed by stable or decreasing temperature we interpret the rise in melt frequency as evidence of an increasing marine influence on the ross sea sector of west antarctica although the surface elevation of siple dome has not changed greatly the continued lateral retreat of the west antarctic ice sheet from its last glacial maximum configuration across the outer continental shelf and the delayed drawdown in ice thickness from the adjacent coastal marie byrd land region in conjunction with periods of increased cyclogenesis perhaps related to variations in enso would allow a moderated maritime climate to more easily reach west antarctica

petalite postdating spodumene in pegmatite as a consequence of the 2 02 ga meteorite impact in the vredefort structure southern africa abstract rare element granitic pegmatites enriched in lithium are economically important hosts for the lithium aluminosilicates spodumene and petalite most spodumene and petalite crystallize from the pegmatite melt depending on pressure and temperature this paper reports the rare occurrence of petalite postdating the subsolidus stage in spodumene pegmatites within the 2 02 ga vredefort impact structure the largest oldest and most deeply eroded meteorite impact structure currently known on earth the studied spodumene bearing pegmatites postdate the deformation fabric in the surrounding amphibolites of the granitoid greenstone terrane impact related veins of fragment rich pseudotachylites cut across the pegmatites spodumene albite and quartz constitute the primary mineral assemblage of the pegmatites muscovite is late magmatic and contains inclusions of spodumene and albite during the subsolidus stage k feldspar replaced spodumene and albite during pervasive metasomatic alteration samples collected closer to the pseudotachylites show reaction textures between spodumene and quartz without the involvement of muscovite raman spectroscopy and microprobe analyses show that the reaction textures consist of quartz and petalite unlike spodumene petalite does not show a replacement by k feldspar the 40ar 39ar muscovite age of 2027 8 ma coincides with the timing of the meteorite impact and documents its effect on the spodumene pegmatites we suggest that the formation of petalite after spodumene was related to heating which was generated in the target rocks by the post shock thermal event thus the unique conditions associated with the meteorite impact can not only result in the formation of rare minerals in the target rocks but can also account for rare scenarios resulting in phases that would not otherwise form in nature

timing of millennial scale climate change at siple dome west antarctica during the last glacial period using atmospheric methane and the isotopic composition of o2 as correlation tools we place the dd record of ice from the siple dome west antarctica ice core on a precise common chronology with the gisp2 greenland ice core for the period from 9 to 57 ka the onset of major millennial warming events in siple dome preceded major abrupt warmings in greenland and the pattern of millennial change at siple dome was broadly similar though not identical to that previously observed for the byrd ice core also in west antarctica the addition of siple dome to the database of well dated antarctic paleoclimate records supports the case for a coherent regional pattern of millennial scale climate change in antarctica during much of the last ice age and glacial interglacial transition

u pb geochronology of zircon and polygenetic titanite from the glastonbury complex connecticut usa an integrated sem empa tims and shrimp study abstract u pb ages for zircon and titanite from a granodioritic gneiss in the glastonbury complex connecticut have been determined using both isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry tims and the sensitive high resolution ion microprobe shrimp zircons occur in three morphologic populations 1 equant to stubby multifaceted colorless 2 prismatic dark brown with numerous cracks and 3 elongate prismatic light tan to colorless cathodoluminescence cl imaging of the three populations shows simple concentric oscillatory zoning the zircon tims age weighted average of 207pb 206pb ages from group 3 grains 450 5 1 6 ma mswd 1 11 and shrimp age composite of 206pb 238 u age data from all three groups 448 2 2 7 ma mswd 1 3 are interpreted to suggest a relatively simple crystallization history titanite from the granodioritic gneiss occurs as both brown and colorless varieties scanning electron microscope backscatter bse images of brown grains show multiple cross cutting oscillatory zones of variable brightness and dark overgrowths colorless grains are unzoned or contain subtle wispy or very faint oscillatory zoning electron microprobe analysis empa clearly distinguishes the two populations brown grains contain relatively high concentrations of fe2o3 ce2o3 up to 1 5 wt nb2o5 and zr cerium concentration is positively correlated with total ree y concentration which together can exceed 3 5 wt oscillatory zoning in brown titanite is correlated with variations in ree concentrations in contrast colorless titanite both as discrete grains and overgrowths on brown titanite contains lower concentrations of y ree fe2o3 and zr but somewhat higher al2o3 and nb2o5 uranium concentrations and th u discriminate between brown grains typically 200 400 ppm u all analyses but one have th u between about 0 8 and 2 and colorless grains 10 60 ppm u th u of 0 0 17 in contrast to the zircon u pb age results shrimp u pb data from titanite indicate multiple growth episodes in brown grains oscillatory zoned cores formed at 443 6 ma whereas white in bse cross cutting zones are 425 9 ma colorless grains and overgrowths on brown grains yield an age of 265 8 ma using the total pb method or 265 5 ma using the weighted average of the 206pb 238u ages however empa chemical data identify zoning that suggests that this colorless titanite may preserve three growth events oscillatory zoned portions of brown titanite grains are igneous in origin white cross cutting zones probably formed during a previously unrecognized event that caused partial dissolution of earlier titanite and reprecipitation of a slightly younger generation of brown titanite colorless titanite replaced and grew over the magmatic titanite during the permian alleghanian orogeny these isotopic data indicate that titanite like zircon can contain multiple age components coupling shrimp microanalysis with empa and sem results on dated zones as presented in this study is an efficient and effective technique to extract additional chronologic data to reveal the complexities of igneous crystallization and metamorphic growth

full depth englacial vertical ice sheet velocities measured using phase sensitive radar we describe a geophysical technique to measure englacial vertical velocities through to the beds of ice sheets without the need for borehole drilling using a ground based phase sensitive radio echo sounder pres during seven antarctic field seasons we measure the temporal changes in the position of englacial reflectors within ice divides up to 900 m thick on berkner island roosevelt island fletcher promontory and adelaide island recorded changes in reflector positions yield full depth profiles of vertical ice velocity that we use to examine spatial variations in ice flow near the divides we interpret these variations by comparing them to the results of a full stokes simulation of ice divide flow qualitatively validating the model and demonstrating that we are directly detecting an ice dynamical phenomenon called the raymond effect using pres englacial vertical ice velocities can be measured in higher spatial resolution than is possible using instruments installed within the ice we discuss how these measurements could be used with inverse methods to measure ice rheology and to improve ice core dating by incorporating pres measured vertical velocities into age modeling

thermal consequences of mantled gneiss dome emplacement abstract bodies of rock within the crust that have higher thermal conductivities than surrounding rocks serve as conduits for the diffusive flow of heat the resultant focusing of heat creates an apparent contact metamorphic aureole in the surrounding rocks without the high conductivity rocks being a heat source themselves two dimensional thermal models of mantled gneiss domes are used to consider these effects and their role in the thermal histories of metamorphic belts the complex metamorphic histories and patterns observed around gneiss domes may be the result of the emplacement of relatively high thermal conductivity rocks dome cores into lower thermal conductivity metasediments mantling strata the degree of the thermal anomaly is primarily affected by the conductivity contrast but is also dependent upon the velocity of emplacement crustal level and heat flux many of the metamorphic isograd features and pressure temperature time paths that are observed around mantled gneiss domes can be explained merely by the emplacement of high conductivity rocks into low conductivity rocks without invoking additional heat sources or significant post metamorphic deformation

fabric and texture at siple dome antarctica preferred c axis orientations are present in the firn at siple dome west antarctica and recrystallization begins as shallow as 200 m depth in ice below 20 c based on digital analysis of c axis fabrics grain sizes and other characteristics of 52 vertical thin sections prepared in the field from the kilometer long siple dome ice core the shallowest section analyzed from 22 m shows clustering of c axes toward the vertical by 200 m depth girdle fabric and other features of recrystallized ice are evident in layers or regions separated by layers regions of typically finer grained ice lacking evidence of recrystallization ice from about 700 780m depth which was deposited during the last ice age is especially fine grained with strongly vertical c axes but deeper ice shows much larger crystals and strong evidence of recrystallization azimuthal asymmetry of some c axis fabrics trends in grain size and other indicators reveal additional information on processes and history of ice flow at siple dome

migration of the siple dome ice divide west antarctica the non linearity of the ice flow law or a local accumulation low over an ice divide can cause isochrones internal layers to be shallower under the divide relative to the flanks forming a divide bump in the internal layer pattern this divide signature is analyzed using ice flow models and inverse techniques to detect and quantify motion of the siple dome ice divide west antarctica the principal feature indicating that migration has occurred is a distinct tilt of the axis of the peaks of the warped internal layers beneath the divide the calculated migration rate is 0 05 0 50 m a 1 toward ice stream d and depends slightly on whether the divide bump is caused by the non linearity of ice flow or by a local accumulation low our calculations also suggest a strong south north accumulation gradient of 5 10 x 10 6 a 1 in a narrow zone north of the divide a consequence of divide migration is that pre holocene ice is thickest about 0 5 km south of the present divide position divide motion indicates that non steady processes possibly associated with activity of the bounding ice streams are affecting the geometry of siple dome the migration rate is sufficiently slow that the divide bump is maintained in the internal layer pattern at all observable depths this suggests that major asynchronous changes in the elevation or position of the bounding ice streams are unlikely over at least the past 10 3 10 4 years

new zircon shock phenomena and their use for dating and reconstruction of large impact structures revealed by electron nanobeam ebsd cl eds and isotopic u pb and u th he analysis of the vredefort domethis article is one of a series of papers published in this special issue on the theme of geochronology in honour of tom krogh integrated electron nanobeam ebsd cl eds and isotopic measurements u pb u th he of zircon from the collar and centre of the 80 km wide central uplift of the 2020 3 ma vredefort impact structure reveal new shock features in a microstructural progression related to impact basin formation and degree of u pb age resetting 1 planar fractures in 1k0 and 1k2 orientation during initial shock wave compression 2 curviplanar fractures in 1k1 orientation now annealed which host glassy inclusions of partial melt of the host rock 3 microtwin lamellae in an orientation of 65 about 110 attributed to shock wave rarefaction 4 nucleation of impact age crystallites possibly on microtwins during post shock heating by impact melt and 5 crystal plastic deformation linked to crater modification of the core of the central uplift planar fracturing and microtwinning 20 gpa in cold shock zircon in granitoid at a radial distance of 25 km failed to reset zircon age single grain id tims data

past and future grounding line retreat of the west antarctic ice sheet the history of deglaciation of the west antarctic ice sheet wais gives clues about its future southward grounding line migration was dated past three locations in the ross sea embayment results indicate that most recession occurred during the middle to late holocene in the absence of substantial sea level or climate forcing current grounding line retreat may reflect ongoing ice recession that has been under way since the early holocene if so the wais could continue to retreat even in the absence of further external forcing

empirical constraints on shock features in monazite using shocked zircon inclusions shock deformation microstructures in monazite have been systematically characterized for the first time in grains from the vredefort impact structure in south africa electron backscatter diffraction mapping has identified 12 unique orientations of monazite deformation twins including 7 orientations that have not previously been described in experiments or nature other shock features include planar deformation bands and strain free neoblasts which have been shown to date deformation shock twinned zircon inclusions within the deformed monazite require pressures of 20 gpa thus providing critical empirical constraints on formation conditions confirming a hypervelocity impact origin of the monazite microstructures the vredefort monazite grains described here represent the first case of using shocked mineral inclusions to empirically calibrate shock microstructures formed in the host mineral these results conclusively establish monazite as a recorder of shock deformation and highlight its use in identifying and dating impact structures

rates and mechanisms of mesoarchean magmatic arc construction eastern kaapvaal craton swaziland the mechanisms and time scales of magmatism and deformation during orogenesis are important for developing models of lithospheric growth we summarize the first detailed study of a well preserved mesoarchean crustal section from the oldest portion of the kaapvaal craton southern africa which records the complex interactions between deformation and magmatism during craton assembly ca 3 3 3 2 ga we use chemical abrasion isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry ca id tims u pb zircon geochronology and apatite thermochronology in conjunction with geological mapping to show that the tonalitic to granitic usutu magmatic suite intruded into the ca 3 66 3 45 ga ancient gneiss complex over a period of 16 ma ca 3236 3220 ma as discrete pulses of magma with variable intrusive styles usutu rocks retain magmatic fabrics that preserve a history of nw se regional shortening consistent with synchronous deformation recorded in the adjacent barberton greenstone belt u pb zircon dates of ca 3 28 3 23 ga and apatite cooling dates from the nhlangano gneiss se of the ancient gneiss complex reveal that they represent an older largely undocumented period of crustal growth and modification synchronicity in magmatism and similarity in kinematics of deformation north and south of a previously suggested continental suture in the barberton greenstone belt lead us to propose doubly vergent subduction zones that were active from at least ca 3 28 to 3 22 ga geochemistry of the usutu suite reveals differences in magma sources from north to south which when combined with nd isotopic signatures are consistent with their production in a subduction zone the combination of 1 ma precision on crystallization dates with field observations and geochemistry allows us to track the evolution of this magmatic system with temporal resolution unprecedented for archean rocks

ross sea paleo ice sheet drainage and deglacial history during and since the lgm onshore and offshore studies show that an expanded grounded ice sheet occupied the ross sea embayment during the last glacial maximum lgm results from studies of till provenance and the orienta

the crossover stress anisotropy and the ice flow law at siple dome west antarctica we used observations and modeling of siple dome west antarctica a ridge ice divide to infer the importance of linear deformation mechanisms in ice sheet flow we determined the crossover stress a threshold value of the effective deviatoric stress below which linear flow mechanisms dominate over nonlinear flow mechanisms by combining measurements of ice properties with in situ deformation rate measurements and a finite element ice flow model that accounts for the effects of viscous anisotropy induced by preferred crystal orientation fabric we found that a crossover stress of 0 18 bar produces the best match between predicted and observed deformation rates for siple dome this means that including a linear term in the flow law is necessary but generally the flow is still dominated by the nonlinear glen n 3 term the pattern of flow near the divide at siple dome is also strongly affected by crystal fabric measurements of sonic velocity which is a proxy for vertically oriented crystal fabric suggest that a bed parallel shear band exists several hundred meters above the bed within the ice age ice

new radiometric ages on gneisses of the oliverian domes in new hampshire and massachusetts gneissic plutons of the oliverian domes mantled by ammonoosuc volcanics are located along the axis of the bronson hill anticlinorium from new hampshire to connecticut the contacts between the plutonic and volcanic rocks appear to be concordant on a regional scale but gneiss intrudes the volcanics in several domes available radiometric and fossil evidence suggests that the ammonoosuc volcanics have a middle ordovician age but are somewhat older than the oliverian gneisses new u pb zircon data from oliverian gneisses of six domes plot on a concordia diagram as an almost colinear array that yields an upper intercept age of about 444 m y the plotted data vary from nearly concordant to moderately discordant the degree of discordance correlating with sup 207 pb sup 206 pb ages that range from 459 to 415 m y the pattern of discordance does not relate to the uranium contents of the zircons nor to the geographic distribution of the domes if sup 207 pb sup 206 pb ages are considered individually without an assumed consanguinity of the units however they do not find particular support in geologic relationships thus they prefer the concordia intercept age of 444 8 m y for the suite as the best estimate for the time of crystallizationmore of the oliverian gneisses possibly the whitefield gneiss in the jefferson dome represents a 10 to 15 m y older unit although they are cautious about claiming such resolution with the present data less

west antarctic ice sheet elevations in the ohio range geologic constraints and ice sheet modeling prior to the last highstand abstract knowledge of the timing and extent of past west antarctic ice sheet wais elevation changes provides insight to the wais response to sea level and climate forcing as well as constraints for ice sheet models trimlines and erratics indicate that maximum ice elevation at the ohio range located near the wais divide was 125 m above the present ice surface and was reached at 10 ka however 3 he and 10 be exposure ages of most granitic erratics and supra glacial boulders in adjacent blue ice areas are older than the last highstand and provide constraints on earlier interior wais elevation changes although diffusive loss of 3 he occurs in quartz an excellent correlation between 3 he and 10 be concentrations in samples up to 400 ka is observed in the ohio range demonstrating the utility of 3 he measurements in antarctic quartz the correlation is used to calculate equivalent 10 be exposure ages from the larger 3 he data set the exposure ages occur in distinct clusters 10 20 ka 70 80 ka 130 140 ka and 180 190 ka that we relate to pulses in the emergence of englacial debris in localized blue ice ablation areas a combined ice sheet ice shelf model predicts that wais elevations near the ohio range have varied only 125 m over the last 200 kyr with highstands at 10 ka and 130 ka in good agreement with observations of trimlines and peaks in the exposure age distribution at the ohio range in the model interior wais elevations are controlled by the interaction of accumulation rates and ice dynamics related to ice sheet ocean interactions at the grounding line wais highstands occur early in interglacial periods during intervals of warmer temperatures and high accumulation rates prior to the arrival of a wave of thinning we hypothesize that the correspondence of rising regional wais elevation with debris pulses relates to increased ice debris flux and ablation in the local blue ice areas resulting from the warmer temperatures the occurrence of clasts with exposure ages up to 200 ka on the wais surface indicates elevation changes near the ohio range were limited in extent during stage 5e the geologic observations combined with model results place constraints on wais geometry during stage 5e and limit the wais contribution to the higher sea levels observed during the last interglacial to 3 m

glacial isostatic adjustment in response to changing late holocene behaviour of ice streams on the siple coast west antarctica the siple coast region of antarctica contains a number of fast flowing ice streams which control the dynamics and mass balance of the region these ice streams are known to undergo stagnation and reactivation cycles which lead to ice thickness changes that may be sufficient to excite a viscous solid earth response glacial isostatic adjustment gia this study aims to quantify siple coast ice thickness changes during the last 2000 yr in order to determine the degree to which they might contribute to gia and associated present day bedrock uplift rates this is important because accurate modelling of gia is necessary to determine the rate of present day ice mass change from satellite gravimetry recently published reconstructions of ice stream variability were used to create a suite of kinematic models for the stagnation related thickening of kamb ice stream since 1850 ad and a gia model was used to predict present day deformation rates in response to this thickening a number of longer term loading scenarios which include the stagnation and reactivation of ice streams across the siple coast over the past 2000 yr were also constructed and used to investigate the longer term gia signal in the region uplift rates for each of the ice loading histories based on a range of earth models were compared with regional gps observed uplift rates and an empirical gia estimate we estimate kamb ice stream to have thickened by 70 130 m since stagnation 165 years ago modelled present day vertical motion in response to this load increase peaks at 17 mm yr 1 i e 17 mm yr 1 subsidence for the weakest earth models tested here comparison of the solid earth response to ice load changes throughout the last glacial cycle including ice stream stagnation and reactivation across the siple coast during the last 2000 yr with an empirical gia estimate suggests that the upper mantle viscosity of the region is greater than 1 10 20 pa s when upper mantle viscosity values of 1 10 20 pa s or smaller are combined with our suite of ice load scenarios we predict uplift rates across siple coast that are at least 4 mm yr 1 smaller than those predicted by the empirical gia estimate gps data are unable to further constrain model parameters due to the distance of the gps sites from the study area our results demonstrate that late holocene ice load changes related to the stagnation and reactivation of ice streams on the siple coast may play a dominant role in defining the present day uplift signal however both the detailed earth structure and deglacial history of the region need to be better constrained in order to reduce uncertainties associated with the gia signal of this region

deformation in the vicinity of ice divides calculs numeriques aux elements finis de la variation de la vitesse horizontale avec la profondeur au voisinage d une difference de la glace symetrique isotherme et ou glissement sur un lit plat

dissolution and replacement creep a significant deformation mechanism in mid crustal rocks abstract zoning patterns and zoning truncations in metamorphic minerals in a granodioritic orthogneiss indicate that strain and s c fabrics in these rocks were produced by dissolution precipitation and replacement processes even at epidote amphibolite facies metamorphic conditions the metamorphic fabric is defined by alternating layers and folia dominated by quartz feldspars and biotite epidote zoning patterns in most metamorphic plagioclase orthoclase epidote and sphene are truncated at boundaries normal to the shortening direction suggesting dissolution interfaces of relict igneous orthoclase phenocrysts that face the shortening direction are embayed and replaced by biotite epidote and myrmekitic intergrowths of plagioclase and quartz metamorphic plagioclase grains are also replaced by epidote we interpret these microstructures to reflect strain enhanced dissolution the cores of many grains show asymmetric overgrowths with at least two generations of beards all oriented on the ends of grains that face the extension direction we interpret these textures to reflect precipitation of components dissolved by deformation enhanced dissolution while biotite and quartz probably deformed by dislocation creep the overall deformation was accommodated by dissolution perpendicular to the shortening direction and precipitation parallel to it these chemical processes must have been activated at lower stresses than the dislocation creep predicted from extrapolations of data from experiments in dry rocks thus wet crust is likely to be weaker than calculated from these experimental studies

ordovician early silurian intrusive rocks in the northwest part of the upper allochthon mid norway plutons of an iapetan volcanic arc complex

stable isotope study of the archaean rocks of the vredefort impact structure central kaapvaal craton south africa the vredefort dome in the kaapvaal craton was formed as a result of the impact of a large meteorite at 2 02 ga the central core of archaean granitic basement rocks is surrounded by a collar of uplifted and overturned strata of the witwatersrand supergroup exposing a substantial depth section of the archaean crust orthogneisses of the core show little variation in whole rock 18o value with the majority being between 8 and 10 with a mean of 9 2 n 35 quartz and feldspar have per mil differences that are consistent with o isotope equilibrium at high temperatures suggesting minimal interaction with fluids during subsequent cooling these data refute previous suggestions that the outer granite gneiss ogg and inlandsee leucogranofels ilg of the core represent middle and lower crust respectively granulite facies greenstone remnants from the ilg have 18o values that are on average 1 5 higher than the ilg host rocks and are unlikely therefore to represent the residuum from the partial melting event that formed the host rock witwatersrand supergroup sedimentary rocks of the collar which were metamorphosed at greenschist to amphibolite facies conditions generally have lower 18o values than the core rocks with a mean value for metapelites of 7 7 n 45 overall through an 20 km thick section of crust there is a general increase in whole rock 18o value with increasing depth this is the reverse of what is normal in the crust largely because the collar rocks have 18o values that are unusually low in comparison with metamorphosed sedimentary rocks worldwide the collar rocks have d values ranging from 35 to 115 average 62 n 29 which are consistent with interaction with water of meteoric origin having a d of about 25 to 45 we suggest that fluid movement through the collar rocks was enhanced by impact induced secondary permeability in the dome structure

magma sources for mesozoic anorogenic granites of the white mountain magma series new england usa the magma sources for granitic intrusions related to the mesozoic white mountain magma series in northern new england usa are addressed relying principally upon nd isotopes many of these anorogenic complexes lack significant volumes of exposed mafic lithologies and have been suspected of representing crustal melts sm nd and rb sr isotope systematics are used to evaluate magma sources for 18 felsic plutons with ages ranging from about 120 to 230 ma the possibility of crustal sources is further examined with analyses of representative older crust including paleozoic granitoids which serve as probes of the lower crust in the region multiple samples from two representative intrusions are used to address intrapluton initial isotopic heterogeneities and document significant yet restricted variations 1 in end overall mesozoic granite plutons range in end t from 4 2 to 2 3 with most 2 to 0 and in initial 87sr 86sr from 0 7031 to 0 709 the isotopic variations are roughly inversely correlated but are not obviously related to geologic geographic or age differences older igneous and metamorphic crust of the region has much lower nd isotope ratios with the most radiogenic paleozoic granitoid at end 180 ma of 2 8 these data suggest mid proterozoic separation of the crust in central northern new england moreover the bulk of the mesozoic granites cannot be explained as crustal melts but must have large mantle components the ranges of nd and sr isotopes are attributed to incorporation of crust by magmas derived from midly depleted mantle sources crustal input may reflect either magma mixing of crustal and mantle melts or crustal assimilation which is the favored interpretation the results indicate production of anorogenic granites from mantle derived mafic magmas

isochrones and isotherms beneath migrating ice divides we use simple numerical and analytical models of ice flow and heat flow to characterize the shape of isochrones and isotherms beneath moving ice divides both non linear ice flow and reduced accumulation wind scouring at a divide can cause reduced downward flow in a region about one ice thickness wide under a divide greater downward velocities on the flanks cause isochrones and isotherms to become arched at depth the magnitudes and shapes of these arches depend on the history of divide position arch amplitudes decrease by approximately e for each increase in migration rate of 3 5 times the accumulation rate the arches become asymmetric with steeper leading edges and more gentle trailing edges and the arch apex lags behind the divide isochrone and isotherm shapes can be used to infer past divide motions in advection dominated ice sheets isochrone shapes record a longer history of divide position than do isotherm shapes the opposite is true for diffusion dominated ice sheets in which a spatial array of ice temperature measurements might extend the recorded history of divide position

ice temperature and high geothermal flux at siple dome west antarctica from borehole measurements a verlical temperature profile through the west antarctic ice sheet wais at the summit of siple dome reveals an elevated geothermal flux this could be the root cause for the existence of a dynamic ice stream system in the wais siple dome is still frozen on its bed but adjacent ice streams have bed temperatures at the pressure melting point of ice although present day temperature increases due to climatic change do not have an immediate effect on the basal conditions that control the velocity of the ice indirect ellbcts like a rapid disintegration of the floating ice shelves or additional melt water input at the surface could give rise to speed up of the ice streams with an ensuing rise in sea level ongoing melt at the base of the ice and changes at the margins will allow continued rapid flow of the ice streams with a possibility of disintegration within a relatively short period of time of at least part of the wais

distortion of isochronous layers in ice revealed by ground penetrating radar in addition to measuring ice sheet thickness ground penetrating radar can be used to delineate reflections in ice sheets1 2 3 these reflections are generally accepted to result from layers of isochronous deposition of snow and can reveal much about the dynamics of the ice flow here we present ground penetrating radar data from fletcher promontory antarctica which show arches and troughs in isochronous ice layers to a depth of 100 m we demonstrate that the origin of these features can be determined by their growth with depth and many features result from local anomalies in accumulation rate which can be correlated with the ice surface slope one arch appears to be the result of a local anomaly in vertical strain rate its proximity to the ice divide width and growth with depth indicate that this arch is one of a class of features postulated by raymond4 but not previously shown to exist in the field such a feature is an indication of the nonlinear rheology of ice and requires that palaeoclimate records from ice cores extracted from the vicinity of ice divides underlain by similar features should be specifically corrected for such effects on ice flow

impact tectonics in the core of the vredefort dome south africa implications for central uplift formation in very large impact structures the 80 km wide vredefort dome presents a unique opportunity to investigate the deep levels of the central uplift of a very large impact structure exposure of progressively older strata in the collar of the dome and of progressively higher grade metamorphic rocks toward its center is consistent with differential uplift however the deepest levels exposed correspond to pre impact mid crust rather than lower crust as has been suggested previously pre impact archean gneissic fabrics in the core of the dome are differentially rotated with the angle of rotation increasing sharply at a distance of 1619 km from the center the present asymmetric dips of the collar strata with layering dipping outward at moderate angles in the southeastern sector but being overturned and dipping inward in the northwestern sector and the eccentric distribution of the pre impact metamorphic isograds around the core of the dome can be reconciled with symmetric rotation of an initially obliquely nw dipping target sequence during central uplift formation the rocks in the core of the dome lack distinctive megablocks or large slip magnitude faults such as have been described in other central uplifts we suggest that the large scale coherent response of these rocks to the central uplift formation could have been accommodated by small scale shear and or rotation along pervasive pseudotachylitic breccia vein fractures

subglacial thermal balance permits ongoing grounding line retreat along the siple coast of west antarctica changes in the discharge of west antarctic ice streams are of potential concern with respect to global sea level the six relatively thin fast flowing ross ice streams are of interest as low slope end members among antarctic ice streams extensive research has demonstrated that these rivers of ice have a history of relatively high frequency asynchronous discharge variations with evolving lateral boundaries amidst this variability a 1300 km grounding line retreat has occurred since the last glacial maximum numerical studies of ice stream d parizek and others 2002 indicate that a proposed thermal regulation mechanism clarke and marshall 1998 hulbe and macayeal 1999 tulaczyk and others 2000a b which could buffer the west antarctic ice sheet against complete collapse may be over ridden by latent heat transport within melt water from beneath inland ice extending these studies to ice stream a whillans ice stream and ice stream c suggests that further grounding line retreat contributing to sea level rise is possible thermodynamically however the efficiency of basal water distribution may be a constraint on the system because local thermal deficits promote basal freeze on especially on topographic highs observed short term variability is likely to persist

nature of the archean midcrust in the core of the vredefort dome central kaapvaal craton south africa extreme uplift associated with the formation of the 2 02 ga vredefort dome has exposed a substantial cross section through the crystalline early archean basement complex rocks of the kaapvaal craton the rocks comprise polydeformed high grade tonalite trondhjemite granodiorite ttg gneisses migmatites and late tectonic intrusive granitoids that straddle the upper amphibolite to granulite facies transition field petrographic and geochemical data indicate that compositional heterogeneity occurs on a local scale and reflects the migmatitic character of the rocks rather than crustal scale layering as has been previously proposed no evidence has been found to support exposure of either a melt depleted refractory lower crust or an upper crustal batholithic granite layer however the immense volume of granitic leucosome in the rocks suggests that the exposed section represents an intermediate level between these two zones granitic leucosomes in the upper amphibolite facies migmatites appear to be intrusive into the predominantly trondhjemitic host rocks rather than of in situ derivation leucosome compositions in the granulite facies migmatites are more variable ranging from granitic and charnockitic to enderbitic probably reflecting at least some local derivation leucosomes and small granitoid bodies show local scale geochemical variation that can be explained in terms of variable amounts of melt segregation and migration and fractionation of minerals such as k feldspar within the melts

measurement of vertical strain and velocity at siple dome antarctica with optical sensors as part of a larger program to measure and model vertical strain around siple dome on the west antarctic ice sheet we developed a new sensor to accurately and stably record displacements the sensors consist of optical fibers encased in thin wall stainless steel tubes frozen into holes drilled with hot water and stretched from the surface to various depths up to 985 m in the ice sheet an optical system connected annually to the fibers reads out their absolute lengths with a precision of about 2 mm two sets of five sensors were installed in the 1997 98 field season one set is near the siple dome core hole an ice divide and a second set is on the flank 7 km to the north the ice thickness at both sites is approximately 1000 m the optical fiber length observations taken in four field seasons spanning a 3 year interval reveal vertical strain rates ranging from 229 4 ppm a 1 to 7 9 ppm a in addition to confirming a non linear constitutive relationship for deep ice our analysis of the strain rates indicates the ice sheet is thinning at the flank and is in steady state at the divide

the antarctic ice sheet during the last glacial maximum and its subsequent retreat history a review abstract an emerging body of evidence from studies of the last glacial interglacial cycle suggests that the east and west antarctic ice sheets have not advanced and retreated in concert the west antarctic ice sheet advanced to the outer shelf in most regions during the last glacial maximum lgm the retreat from the shelf commenced shortly after the lgm and continued into the late holocene the west antarctic ice sheet in ross and amundsen seas slid across a deforming bed at least during the final phases of extended glaciation this implies that at this time the ice sheet had a low profile differences in the number and locations of grounding zone wedges and smaller grounding zone features from trough to trough imply that individual west antarctic ice sheet ice streams retreated episodically details concerning the expansion retreat and behavior of the east antarctic ice sheet eais are more sparse the picture emerging is that the eais did not expand to the continental shelf edge during the lgm rather it achieved a maximum extent of a mid shelf position in some locations while in other areas the ice terminus was situated near its present location the timing of retreat along sectors within the eais appears diachronous and in places occurred prior to the lgm the antarctic peninsula shelf contained considerably more ice during the lgm than previously proposed the results presented in this paper support more recent published ice sheet models that call for greater contributions of melting ice from west antarctica including the antarctic peninsula to the post glacial rise in sea level

scientific comment on muundjua et al 2007 magnetic imaging of the vredefort impact crater south africa epsl 261 456 468 scientific comment on uundja et al 2007 magnetic imaging of the vredefort impact crater south africa epsl 261 456 468

timing of recent accelerations of pine island glacier antarctica 1 we have used interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar data and sequential landsat imagery to identify and temporally constrain two acceleration events on pine island glacier pig these two events are separated by a period of at least seven years 1987 1994 the change in discharge between two flux gates indicates that the majority of the increase in discharge associated with the second acceleration originates well inland 80 km from the grounding line an analysis indicates that changes in driving stress consistent with observed thinning rates are sufficient in magnitude to explain much of the acceleration

origin and implications of two verwey transitions in the basement rocks of the vredefort meteorite crater south africa abstract two populations of magnetite exist in the shocked basement rocks of the vredefort meteorite impact crater one associated with original crustal genesis and metamorphism around 3 0 ga and the other related to the impact itself at 2 02 ga pre impact magnetite is mostly micron to millimeter in size lying within the multidomain to pseudo single domain range the second population of magnetite is less than 10 m in size and formed within the interstices of planar deformation features or within the reaction rims of biotite both of which were created during impact our study shows that each of these populations possesses specific verwey transition temperatures one around 124 k associated with pre impact magnetite and the other around 102 k associated with impact related magnetite the high temperature verwey transition is attributed to stoichiometric magnetite while the low temperature verwey transition to non stoichiometric magnetite pre impact rocks containing both verwey transitions are ubiquitous throughout the crater pseudotachylites formed during impact have a single verwey transition spanning temperatures from 94 to 111 k heating the basement rocks above 550 600 c for 3 min or above 500 c for 1 h irreversibly modifies the 124 k verwey transition by shifting it to lower temperatures based on these findings it is possible that no wholesale heating of the crater occurred above 550 600 c for 3 min or above 500 c for 1 h during or since the time of impact although some places of more localized heating are identified an unresolved problem remains to reconcile these data with temperatures thought to exist in the crust during and after impact

holocene deglaciation of marie byrd land west antarctica surface exposure ages of glacial deposits in the ford ranges of western marie byrd land indicate continuous thinning of the west antarctic ice sheet by more than 700 meters near the coast throughout the past 10 000 years deglaciation lagged the disappearance of ice sheets in the northern hemisphere by thousands of years and may still be under way these results provide further evidence that parts of the west antarctic ice sheet are on a long term trajectory of decline west antarctic melting contributed water to the oceans in the late holocene and may continue to do so in the future

decoding the dipstick thickness of siple dome west antarctica at the last glacial maximum ice thickness in west antarctica at the last glacial maximum lgm is poorly known yet is key information for understanding ice streams and interpreting ice cores although trim lines moraine limits and exposure age dating provide geologic constraints on ice thickness near the transantarctic mountains and in marie byrd land lack of exposed bedrock hampers traditional geologic methods in a central 2 3 10 6 km 2 region here we infer ice sheet thickness changes in the central ross sea embayment by using a tran sient ice flow model to find combinations of accumulation rate and ice sheet thickness histories that match the depth age relationship and the measured layer thickness pattern in the siple dome ice core after we reject unreasonable accumulation rate histories the remaining history pairs indicate thinning of 200 400 m since the lgm our estimate is lower than previous reconstructions that were constrained by geologic evidence from the transantarctic mountains and by marine data from the ross sea floor which indicate that a grounded ice sheet extended to the continental shelf margin during the last glacial period low surface elevations in the central ross sea embayment during the lgm do not preclude thicker ice along its boundaries however if this grounded ice sheet came over 1000 km from interior west antarctica as is usually assumed then it had very low surface slope requiring a very slippery bed alternatively the grounded ross sea ice might have flowed from the transantarctic mountains and western marie byrd land

reconstructing the antarctic ice sheet at the last glacial maximum abstract a reconstruction of the antarctic ice sheet at the last glacial maximum lgm constrained by geologic data shows expansion across continental shelves accompanied by little inland change this added peripheral ice volume contributed 14 m to the lowering of eustatic sea level at the lgm of the total expansion one third took place in east antarctica and two thirds in west antarctica

probing the depths of oliverian magmas implications for paleozoic tectonics in the northeastern united states oliverian magma series gneisses 442 454 ma in the cores of domes in southwestern new hampshire have an igneous mineralogy that crystallized at pressures p of 9 11 kbar and temperatures t of 650 775 c whereas the cover ammonoosuc volcanics has the same formation age 453 2 ma yet is clearly extrusive a significant crustal section 30 km thick must have originally separated the two units a recognition that demands tectonic reinterpretation of this classic orogen acadian age ca 400 ma metamorphism at p 4 6 kbar t 625 c is well documented in the cover but the absence of expected diffusional reequilibration in oliverian garnets indicates that they never exceeded 550 c after formation juxtaposition of the oliverian magma series gneisses and their cover must have occurred after the cover had cooled below 550 c and was likely via either neo acadian or alleghanian thrusting

recent dramatic thinning of largest west antarctic ice stream triggered by oceans a growing body of observational data suggests that pine island glacier pig is changing on decadal or shorter timescales these changes may have far reaching consequences for the future of the west antarctic ice sheet wais and global sea levels because of pig s role as the ice sheet s primary drainage portal we test the hypothesis that these changes are triggered by the adjoining ocean specifically we employ an advanced numerical ice flow model to simulate the effects of perturbations at the grounding line on pig s dynamics the speed at which these changes are propagated upstream implies a tight coupling between ice sheet interior and surrounding ocean

impact induced melting of archean granulites in the vredefort dome south africa i anatexis of metapelitic granulites mid crustal archean pelitic granulites in the vredefort dome experienced a static low p granulite facies overprint associated with the formation of the dome by meteorite impact at 2 02 ga heating and exhumation were virtually instantaneous with the main source of heat being provided by energy released from nonadiabatic decay of the impact shock wave maximum temperatures within a radius of a few kilometres of the centre of the structure exceeded 900 c and locally even exceeded 1350 c this led to comprehensive melting of the precursor archean granulite assemblages grt bt qtz pl ksp crd opx sil followed by peritectic crystallization of aluminous alkali feldspar crd spl crn sil parageneses and the segregation of small evolved biotite leucogranite bodies however at a distance of c 6 km from the centre pre impact rock features are largely preserved although partial replacement of garnet by symplectitic coronas of crd opx spl pl and biotite by orthopyroxene indicate that peak temperatures approached 775 50 c thin interstitial moats of k feldspar are closely associated with the orthopyroxene coronas they are interpreted as the remnants of low proportion partial melts generated by biotite breakdown both the textures and mineral compositional data support reduced equilibration volumes in these rocks which reflect rapid isobaric cooling following shock heating and exhumation the high temperatures and strong lateral thermal gradient are consistent with the modelled impact induced isotherm pattern for a 200 300 km diameter impact crater

space and time variation of δ18o and δd in antarctic precipitation revisited 1 to better understand the variations over time of precipitation water isotopes measured in polar ice cores we have developed an intermediate complexity model icm of atmospheric water vapor transport and associated isotopic distillation the model builds directly from earlier work by d fisher and m hendricks and is calibrated against the measured modern spatial distribution of d and deuterium excess d model improvements include a correction to the equation governing advective transport which solves a major puzzle arising from the earlier work the new model shows isotopic data to be consistent with dominance of eddy diffusive transport at high latitudes model experiments are used to show that a wide variety of climate changes in subtropical source regions can affect antarctic d and that such d changes are consistently anticorrelated with changes of d magnitudes of d d are 1 to 5 and are much higher at the ice sheet margin than in the interior of the continent changes in the relative dominance of diffusive and advective transport are also shown to cause anticorrelated changes of similar magnitude isotopic sensitivities to temperature change d t are shown to also vary spatially with low values in marginal zones and higher values inland effects of ocean surface relative humidity on antarctic d are shown to be nearly uniform across the continent in contrast to earlier results given by petit et al 1991 but quantitatively small the method used by vimeux et al 2001 for folding humidity effects into source temperature effects is supported we draw attention to a pervasive misapplication of marine composition corrections to antarctic d records arguments are made in support of simple interpretations of calibrated ice core isotopic time series in terms of temperature changes despite the potential complexities in the system

mass balance and accumulation rate across siple dome west antarctica snow accumulation rates and rates of ice thickness change mass balance are studied at several sites on siple dome west antarctica accumulation rates are derived from analyses of grossbeta radioactivity in shallow firn cores located along a 60 km transect spanning both flanks and the crest of the dome there is a north south gradient in snow accumulation rate across the dome that is consistent with earlier radar mappingof internalstratigraphy orographicprocessesprobablycontrolthisdistribution mass balance is inferred from the difference between global positioning system gps derived vertical velocities and snow accumulation rates for sites close to the firn core locations results indicatethatthere is virtually no netthicknesschangeat fourof thefive sites the exception is at the northernmost site where a small amount of thinning is detected that appearstobe inconsistentwith other studies a possiblecause ofthisanom alousthinning is recent retreatof the grounding line of ice stream d

extensive retreat and re advance of the west antarctic ice sheet during the holocene to predict the future contributions of the antarctic ice sheets to sea level rise numerical models use reconstructions of past ice sheet retreat after the last glacial maximum to tune model parameters 1 reconstructions of the west antarctic ice sheet have assumed that it retreated progressively throughout the holocene epoch the past 11 500 years or so 2 4 here we show however that over this period the grounding line of the west antarctic ice sheet which marks the point at which it is no longer in contact with the ground and becomes a floating ice shelf retreated several hundred kilometres inland of today s grounding line before isostatic rebound caused it to re advance to its present position our evidence includes first radiocarbon dating of sediment cores recovered from beneath the ice streams of the ross sea sector indicating widespread holocene marine exposure and second ice penetrating radar observations of englacial structure in the weddell sea sector indicating ice shelf grounding we explore the implications of these findings with an ice sheet model modelled re advance of the grounding line in the holocene requires ice shelf grounding caused by isostatic rebound our findings overturn the assumption of progressive retreat of the grounding line during the holocene in west antarctica and corroborate previous suggestions of ice sheet re advance 5 rebound driven stabilizing processes were apparently able to halt and reverse climate initiated ice loss whether these processes can reverse present day ice loss 6 on millennial timescales will depend on bedrock topography and mantle viscosity parameters that are difficult to measure and to incorporate into ice sheet models

nature of radio echo layering in the antarctic ice sheet detected by a two frequency experiment a two frequency radio echo sounding experiment was carried out at dome fuji the second highest dome in east antarctica and along a 1150 km long traverse line from the dome to the coast the goal was to determine the dominant causes of the radio echo internal reflections and to investigate their possible changes with depth ranges and regions from the two frequency 60 mhz and 179 mhz radio echo responses at various sites we distinguished four zones each of the zones is characterized by a dominant cause of radio echo internal reflection as follows in the pd zone changes in dielectric permittivity are mainly due to density fluctuations in the pcof zone changes in dielectric permittivity are mainly due to changes in crystal orientation fabrics and in the ca zone changes in electrical conductivity are mainly due to changes in acidity induced by past volcanic eruptions in each of these three zones the changes occur commonly along isochrones in addition a basal echo free zone the fourth zone was found to appear always below the pcof zone these four zones and their distribution suggested variations of the physical conditions within the ice sheet

inland thinning of pine island glacier west antarctica the pine island glacier pig transports 69 cubic kilometers of ice each year from 10 of the west antarctic ice sheet wais it is possible that a retreat of the pig may accelerate ice discharge from the wais interior satellite altimetry and interferometry show that the grounded pig thinned by up to 1 6 meters per year between 1992 and 1999 affecting 150 kilometers of the inland glacier the thinning cannot be explained by short term variability in accumulation and must result from glacier dynamics

dating the siple dome antarctica ice core by manual and computer interpretation of annual layering the holocene portion of the siple dome antarctica ice core was dated by interpreting the electrical visual and chemical properties of the core the data were interpreted manuallyandwith acomputeralgorithm the algorithm interpretation was adjusted to be consistent with atmospheric methane stratigraphic ties to the gisp2 greenland ice sheet project 2 ice core 10 be stratigraphic ties to the dendrochronology 14 c recordandthedatedvolcanic stratigraphy thealgorithm interpretation ismorecon sistent andbetter quantifiedthanthe tedious and subjective manual interpretation

evidence for late pleistocene thinning of siple dome west antarctica 1 we use a two dimensional full stress thermomechanical flow band model to investigate late pleistocene and holocene histories of ice thickness and ice flow at siple dome in west antarctica measurements obtained from an ice core and borehole near the ice divide and measurements of radar detected internal stratigraphy are used as targets for modeling models that account for the climate history accumulation rate and temperature alone yield a poor match to observations histories of ice dynamics ice thickness ice divide location and ice flow enhancement also need to be included our favored model includes 350 m of thinning at siple dome between 15 000 and 14 000 years ago onset of divide flow 3000 years ago ongoing divide migration starting 2500 years ago and evolution of ice fabric over the past 30 000 years the timing of thinning is earlier than that inferred from geologic evidence from the margins but is coincident with a 20 m rise in global sea level about 14 500 years ago meltwater pulse 1a this opens the possibility that thinning was a result of increased activity of the ice streams in the late pleistocene forced by meltwater pulse 1a the contribution to meltwater pulse 1a as a result of this thinning was likely small

modeling the surface mass balance response of the laurentide ice sheet to bolling warming and its contribution to meltwater pulse 1a meltwater pulse mwp 1a occurred 14 5 14 ka and is the largest abrupt rise in sea level 10 20 m of sea level rise of the last deglaciation the timing of mwp 1a is coincident with or shortly follows the abrupt warming of the north atlantic region into the bolling warm period which could have triggered a large laurentide ice sheet lis contribution to mwp 1a given that outside of the arctic lis iceberg discharge probably did not increase during the bolling much of the lis mwp 1a contribution likely occurred through surface ablation here we test the response of lis surface mass balance to bolling warming by forcing a lis energy mass balance model with climate from an atmosphere ocean general circulation model our modeling approach neglects changes in lis mass from dynamics and iceberg calving allowing us to isolate the surface mass balance response model results suggest that lis surface ablation can explain much of the sea level rise just prior to mwp 1a lis surface mass balance becomes more negative in response to the bolling warming contributing an additional 2 9 1 0 m of sea level rise in 500 yr in addition to the background contribution of 4 0 0 8 m the modeled lis mwp 1a contribution is less than previous assumptions but agrees with geochemical runoff and lis area volume estimates the fraction of mwp 1a attributable to other ice sheets particularly antarctica depends on the total sea level rise that occurred during this mwp

material mixing in shock induced pseudotachylites vredefort impact structure south africa abstract impact generated pseudotachylites pts have been extensively studied in the vredefort impact structure south africa and have been shown to correspond chemically and isotopically to their host rocks such melts are frequently described as forming strictly in situ with lithic clasts derived from the immediate wall rocks mixed compositions are rare where pts are observed directly along a lithological contact in this study we document the presence of vast numbers of granitic clasts within dolerite hosted pt veins within the vredefort impact structure the groundmasses of dolerite hosted pt veins have two distinct geochemical compositions 1 mafic and 2 intermediate the two compositional melt phases have a sharp contact indicating immiscibility and or mingling shocked zircon and monazite within the granite clasts enclosed in a dolerite hosted pt vein indicate shock deformation prior to clast transport into the dolerite in monazite we report a new shock microtwin geometry 180 104 the mechanisms by which granitic clasts were emplaced in the dolerite hosted veins are complex previous experimental work has suggested that varying shock velocity in different lithologies may be responsible for material mixing in addition the thermal pulse accompanying the shock wave would have caused quartz in the granite to transform into volumetrically larger high temperature polymorphs significantly increasing the granite volume compared to the adjacent dolerite together with fluctuation of stresses post impact reverberations after the passage of the main shock wave this volume adjustment initiated brittle fracturing of the dolerite a negative pressure gradient was generated within the dolerite that allowed granitic material to be injected into the dolerite hosted melt veins

sea level changes at the lgm from ice dynamic reconstructions of the greenland and antarctic ice sheets during the glacial cycles abstract new experiments were performed with three dimensional thermomechanical models of the greenland and antarctic ice sheets to simulate their behaviour during the glacial cycles to reconstruct their thickness and extent at the last glacial maximum lgm and to estimate their glacio eustatic contribution to the global sea level stand the calculations used improved ice dynamic and isostatic treatments updated datasets on higher grid resolutions and refined climatic treatments based on newly calibrated transfer functions between ice core records and climatic perturbations results are discussed from a reference run with standard parameters that is compared with available glacial geological observations and from a series of sensitivity experiments focusing on isostatic adjustment thermomechanical coupling climatic forcing mass balance changes and basal melting rates and viscosity changes of antarctic ice shelves for the antarctic ice sheet we find that volume changes are closely linked with grounding line changes of the west antarctic ice sheet at the lgm the grounding line extended close to the continental shelf break almost everywhere ice over central east antarctica was generally thinner than today and varied mainly in accordance with accumulation fluctuations for the greenland ice sheet melting is important only during interglacial periods and the most sensitive period concerns the size of the ice sheet during the eemian at the lgm the greenland ice sheet extended beyond the present coastline to cover at least the inner continental shelf and thinned by up to several hundred meters in central areas for a plausible range of parameters the experiments indicate that at the time of maximum sea level depression 21 kyr bp the antarctic ice sheet contributed 14 18 m to the sea level lowering and the greenland ice sheet 2 3 m significantly less than the older climap reconstructions whereas both ice sheets were at 21 kyr bp close to their maximum extent the experiments also indicate that their maximum volumes were reached only by 16 5 kyr bp greenland and 10 kyr bp antarctica equal to an additional sea level lowering of respectively 0 4 and 3 7 m holocene retreat was essentially complete by 5 kyr bp in greenland but is found to still continue today in west antarctica before reversing to growth during the next millenium the models were found to reproduce gross features of the ice sheet s history since the lgm in reasonably good agreement with available glacial geological data although observational control on ice thickness changes remains very limited

sensitivity of the divide position at siple dome west antarctica to boundary forcing a linearized perturbation about a two dimensional vialov nye icesheet profile is used to investigate the sensitivity of the divide position at siple dome west antarctica to small changes in the accumulation pattern and in the elevation of its lateral boundaries at the margins of ice streams c and d relaxation time scales for the icesheet surface and divide position are derived from the perturbation theory for siple dome these time scales are short 450 800 years for surface adjustment and 200 350 years for divide position adjustment these short time scales indicate that siple dome responds quickly to forcing at its boundaries therefore the recent migration of the siple dome divide determined from previous work is probably a response to an ongoing sustained forcing rather than a response to a long past climate event such as the transition from the last glacial maximum to the holocene based on our analysis the inferred rate of migration of the siple dome divide could be attained be

a record of ancient cataclysm in modern sand shock microstructures in detrital minerals from the vaal river vredefort dome south africa the record of terrestrial meteorite impacts is fragmentary because most impact structures and ejecta are removed by erosion or buried discovery of the missing impact record from hadean to present may be advanced through identifi cation of residual shocked detritus to evaluate which shocked minerals survive erosion and sedimentary transport we investigated modern sands from the vaal river in south africa where it crosses the 2 02 ga vredefort dome the largest terrestrial impact structure known to date shocked minerals were identifi ed in all sediment samples including from the vaal channel and tributaries within the structure in transmitted light detrital quartz preserves discontinuous decorated planar features previously identifi ed as brazil twins which are readily visible as bright continuous features in cathodoluminescence images detrital zircons preserve fi ve orientations of planar fractures pfs which can produce dramatically offset growth zoning and apparent rotation of subgrains other zircons contain fi lled fractures that may represent a new shock microstructure detrital monazite preserves four orientations of pfs and many grains contain oscillatoryzoned shocked zircon inclusions which thus represent shocked inclusions within shocked accessory grains zircon and monazite with granular texture were also identifi ed this study is proof of the concept that shocked minerals can be identifi ed in sediments up to 2 billion years after an impact event and it demonstrates their potential for preserving evidence of ancient impacts the recognition of a new geological repository for impact evi dence provides a means for identifying distal shocked detritus from eroded structures of any age and may be particularly relevant to early earth studies

contrasting styles of taconian eastern acadian and western acadian metamorphism central and western new england the two major early to middle palaeozoic tectonic metamorphic events in the northern appalachians were the taconian middle to late ordovician in central to western areas and the acadian late silurian to early middle devonian in eastern to west central areas this paper presents a model for the acadian orogenic event which separates the acadian metamorphic realm into eastern and western belts based on distinctively different styles we propose that the acadian metamorphism in the east was the delayed consequence of taconian back arc lithospheric modification east of the taconian island arc thick accumulations of late ordovician and silurian sediments coupled with plutons rising along a magmatic arc produced crustal thermal conditions appropriate for anomalously high t low p metamorphism accompanied by major crustal anatexis in this zone upward melt migration was coupled with subsequent e w crustal shortening possibly due to outboard collision with the avalon terrane to produce mechanical conditions that favoured formation of fold and thrust nappes and resultant tectonic thickening to the west and probably to the east as well the basis for the distinction between the eastern and western acadian events lies in the contrasting styles of metamorphism accompanying each evidence for contrasting metamorphic styles consists of 1 estimated metamorphic field gradients mfgs based on thermobarometric studies and 2 petrological evidence for contrasting p t trajectories west of the acadian metamorphic front the taconian zone has an mfg in which peak temperatures of 400 600 c were reached at pressures of about 4 6 kbar with both p and t increasing to the east near its western edge the western acadian metamorphic overprint has a similar mfg to the taconian and is mainly discriminated by 40ar 39ar dating and microtextural evidence east of this narrow zone the western acadian overprint is characterized by progressively higher temperatures 600 725 c and pressures 6 5 10 kbar or more to the east yielding an overall mfg that lies along or slightly above the kyanite sillimanite boundary on a p t diagram there is little or no plutonism accompanying western acadian metamorphism in contrast thermobarometry in the eastern acadian east of the bronson hill belt yields high t intermediate p conditions for the highest grade rocks known in new england t 650 750 c p 4 5 6 5 kbar for granulite facies assemblages which apparently formed along an anticlockwise p t path the bronson hill belt lies geographically between the eastern and western acadian zones and shows transitional petrological behaviour anomalously high temperatures at intermediate pressures but a clockwise path with decompression cooling radiometric dating indicates peak taconian conditions may have been achieved as early as 475 ma in the taconian hinterland and as late as 445 ma in the taconian foreland including the taconic allochthons eastern acadian magmatism may have started as early as 425 ma and most nappe stage deformation and metamorphism in the eastern acadian zone appears to have ended by about 410 ma tectonic thickening in the western acadian including the western counterparts of the nappe stage deformation documented in the eastern acadian must pre date attainment of peak metamorphic conditions dated at 395 385 ma dome stage deformation clearly post dates peak metamorphism and deforms metamorphic isograds the end of western acadian deformation is well constrained by 370 375 ma radiometric ages of late pegmatites and granitoids which cross cut all structures

p t t paths and differential alleghanian loading and uplift of the bronson hill terrane south central new england late paleozoic u pb ages of sphene and 4 0 ar 3 9 ar cooling ages of amphibole and muscovite from rocks of the bronson hill terrane in connecticut and central massachusetts reflect a late paleozoic alleghanian overprinton acadian metamorphic rocks prograde alleghanian sphenes crystallized during the late pennsylvanian and eliminate the possibility that amphibole ages reflect delayed permian cooling from devonian acadian metamorphism fourteen new amphibole ages from connecticut form a north to south trend of decreasing age from 294 to 245 ma while in massachusetts four new amphibole ages together with three others from the literature produce a random carboniferous pattern seven new muscovite ages support existing data indicating uniform cooling throughout the bronson hill terrane through 350 c in the early triassic the rate of permian cooling defined by amphibole muscovite pairs increases from 4 c my in northern connecticut to 50 c my near long island sound hinged loading and hinged but delayed exhumation in the southern part of the bronson hill terrane with the hinge in central connecticut explain these ages and cooling rates as well as a southerly increasing metamorphic field gradient one dimensional thermal modeling indicates that loading of bronson hill rocks must have begun by the late mississippian the time of peak alleghanian metamorphic temperature decreases southward from early permian in northern connecticut to late permian to the south these results demonstrate that the metamorphic effects of the alleghanian orogeny are not restricted to the avalon terrane of southeastern new england on the contrary the alleghanian orogeny reset 4 0 ar 3 9 ar mineral ages recrystallized minerals partially melted felsic rocks and transposed fabrics at least as far west as the bronson hill terrane in south central new england

lightning remagnetization of the vredefort impact crater no evidence for impact generated magnetic fields 1 the vredefort impact crater in south africa is one of the oldest and largest craters on earth making it a unique analog for planetary basins intense and randomly oriented remanent magnetization observed in surface samples at vredefort has been attributed to impact generated magnetic fields this possibility has major implications for extraterrestrial paleomagnetism since impact generated fields have been proposed as a key alternative to the dynamo hypothesis for magnetization on the moon and asteroids furthermore the presence of single domain magnetite found along shock generated planar deformation features in vredefort granites has been widely attributed to the 2 02 ga impact event an alternative hypothesis is that the unusual magnetization and or rock magnetic properties of vredefort rocks are the products of recent lightning strikes lightning and impact generated fields can be distinguished by measuring samples collected from below the present surface here we present a paleomagnetic and rock magnetic study of samples from two 10 m deep vertical boreholes we show that the magnetization at depth is consistent with a thermoremanent magnetization acquired in the local geomagnetic field following the impact while random intense magnetization and some of the unusual rock magnetic properties observed in surface rocks are superficial phenomena produced by lightning because vredefort is the only terrestrial crater that has been proposed to contain records of impact generated fields this removes a key piece of evidence in support of the hypothesis that paleomagnetism of the moon and other extraterrestrial bodies is the product of impacts rather than past core dynamos

u pb isotopic dating of titanite microstructures potential implications for the chronology and identification of large impact structures identifying and dating large impact structures is challenging as many of the traditional shock indicator phases can be modified by post impact processes refractory accessory phases such as zircon while faithful recorders of shock wave passage commonly respond with partial u pb age resetting during impact events titanite is an accessory phase with lower pb closure temperature than many other robust chronometers but its potential as indicator and chronometer of impact related processes remains poorly constrained in this study we examined titanite grains from the sudbury ontario canada and vredefort south africa impact structures combining quantitative microstructural and u pb dating techniques titanite grains from both craters host planar microstructures and microtwins that show a common twin host disorientation relationship of 74 about in the vredefort impact structure the microtwins deformed internally and developed high and low angle grain boundaries that resulted in the growth of neoblastic crystallites u pb isotopic dating of magmatic titanite grains with deformation microtwins from the sudbury impact structure yielded a 207pb 206pb age of 1851 12 ma that records either the shock heating or the crater modification stage of the impact event the titanite grains from the vredefort impact structure yielded primarily pre impact ages recording the cooling of the ultra high temperature ventersdorp event but domains with microtwins or planar microstructures show evidence of u pb isotopic disturbance despite that the identified microtwins are not diagnostic of shock metamorphic processes our contribution demonstrates that titanite has great potential to inform studies of the terrestrial impact crater record

steady thermomechanical flow along two dimensional flow lines in large grounded ice sheets a thermomechanical flow model has been developed in order to perform simultaneous calculations of the surface elevation and the distribution of stresses velocities and temperatures along two dimensional flow lines on large grounded ice sheets in order to solve the complex system of full thermomechanical coupled equations the following approximations have been made a coordinate scaling giving a lead order reduced model and an iteration procedure which decouples the energy balance equation from the rest of the equations glen s flow law is used as the constitutive relationship between stresses and deformation in the model and it is found that the longitudinal deviatoric stresses have a significant role in the lead order equations at the ice divide the solution shows that the velocity stress and temperature distributions change rapidly here the basal temperature increases creating a hot spot the surface strain rates increase 50 and the horizontal velocity profile is concave near the base with an inflection point away from the ice divide basal temperature increases and in the example presented here the basal temperature reaches the pressure melting point after 2 3 of the lateral extent and basal sliding begins to influence the flow in the ablation region it is seen that the heat produced by internal deformation is of the same order of magnitude as the geothermal heat flux from the bedrock

a review of the geochronological constraints on the evolution of the kaapvaal craton south africa abstract all the published u pb geochronological data from zircon titanite sphene and monazite and pb pb evaporation data applicable to the palaeoarchaean to neoarchaean geology of the kaapvaal craton are employed to reconstruct the history and crustal architecture of the ca 3600 2500 ma cratonic basement in south africa only data interpreted as representative of the age of crystallisation or the 207 pb 206 pb ages from zircon xenocrysts have been considered in constructing graphs of cumulative probability versus age of rock formation in this manner it has been possible to identify the main magmatic events that have contributed to the assembly of the craton for convenience of data handling the kaapvaal craton has been subdivided into eastern central northern and western geographic domains these domains are not intended as discrete geological terranes although each one has its own geological and chronological character although consanguinity of events is also evident the oldest rocks so far recognised are located in the swaziland barberton areas where ages 3600 ma have been recorded the early stages of shield development are best exposed in the barberton mountain land where it is now apparent that continent formation took place by magmatic accretion and tectonic amalgamation of small protocontinental blocks at barberton several diachronous blocks formed between 3600 and 3200 ma have been identified each of which represents a cycle of arc related magmatism and sedimentation this phase of crustal development was followed by a period of mesoarchaean cratonic magmatism particularly prevalent between approximately 3100 3000 ma and marked by the development of a major crescent shaped juvenile arc that was accreted onto the northern and western margins of the evolving kaapvaal shield cratonisation was accomplished by the emplacement of major granitoid batholiths which thickened and stabilised the continental crust during the early stages of this cycle subsequent evolution of the craton between 3000 and 2700 ma was associated with continent arc collision during which time the witwatersrand basin and its correlatives were deposited as foreland sequences followed by episodic extension and rifting when the gaborone kanye and ventersdorp sequences were developed

ice elevation near the west antarctic ice sheet divide during the last glaciation 1 interior ice elevations of the west antarctic ice sheet wais during the last glaciation which can serve as benchmarks for ice sheet models are largely unconstrained here we report past ice elevation data from the ohio range located near the wais divide and the onset region of the mercer ice stream cosmogenic exposure ages of glacial erratics that record a wais highstand 125 m above the present surface date to 11 5 ka the deglacial chronology prohibits an interior wais contribution to meltwater pulse 1a our observational data of ice elevation changes compare well with predictions of a thermomechanical icesheet model that incorporates very low basal shear stress downstream of the present day grounding line we conclude that ice streams in the ross sea embayment had thin lowslope profiles during the last glaciation and interior wais ice elevations during this period were several hundred meters lower than previous reconstructions citation ackert r p jr s mukhopadhyay b r parizek and h w borns 2007 ice elevation near the west antarctic ice sheet divide during the last glaciation geophys res lett 34 l21506 doi 10 1029 2007gl031412

vertical strain measurements in firn at siple dome antarctica we measured vertical strain in the firn at siple dome antarctica using two systems both of which measure relative displacements over time of metal markers placed in an air filled borehole one system uses a metal detecting tuned coil and the other uses a video camera to locate the markers we compare the merits of the two systems we combine steady state calculations and a measured density profile to estimate the true vertical velocity profile this allows us to calculate a depth age scale for the firn at siple dome our steady state depth age scale has ages 10 15 younger at any given depth when compared to depth age scales derived by layer counting in a core 40 m away the age of a visible ash layer at 97 m in the core is 665 30 years in agreement with a similar analysis conducted at taylor dome antarctica where the same ash is also seen providing an additional dated tie point between the two cores

shocked monazite chronometry integrating microstructural and in situ isotopic age data for determining precise impact ages monazite is a robust geochronometer and occurs in a wide range of rock types monazite also records shock deformation from meteorite impact but the effects of impact related microstructures on the u th pb systematics remain poorly constrained we have therefore analyzed shock deformed monazite grains from the central uplift of the vredefort impact structure south africa and impact melt from the araguainha impact structure brazil using electron backscatter diffraction electron microprobe elemental mapping and secondary ion mass spectrometry sims crystallographic orientation mapping of monazite grains from both impact structures reveals a similar combination of crystal plastic deformation features including shock twins planar deformation bands and neoblasts shock twins were documented in up to four different orientations within individual monazite grains occurring as compound and or type one twins in 001 100 left 10 bar 1 right 110 left 212 right and type two irrational twin planes with rational shear directions in 0 bar 1 bar 1 and bar 1 bar 1 0 sims u th pb analyses of the plastically deformed parent domains reveal discordant age arrays where discordance scales with increasing plastic strain the correlation between discordance and strain is likely a result of the formation of fast diffusion pathways during the shock event neoblasts in granular monazite domains are strain free having grown during the impact events via consumption of strained parent grains neoblastic monazite from the inlandsee leucogranofels at vredefort records a 207pb 206pb age of 2010 15 ma 2 n 9 consistent with previous impact age estimates of 2020 ma neoblastic monazite from araguainha impact melt yield a concordia age of 259 5 ma 2 n 7 which is consistent with previous impact age estimates of 255 3 ma our results demonstrate that targeting discrete microstructural domains in shocked monazite as identified through orientation mapping for in situ u th pb analysis can date impact related deformation monazite is therefore one of the few high temperature geochronometers that can be used for accurate and precise dating of meteorite impacts

correlating planar microstructures in shocked zircon from the vredefort dome at multiple scales crystallographic modeling external and internal imaging and ebsd structural analysis microstructural and geochronological analysis of shocked zircon has greatly advanced understanding the formation and evolution of impact structures however fundamental aspects of shock produced planar microstructures in zircon remain poorly known such as their deformation mechanisms crystallographic orientations and how planar microstructures visible at the grain scale by scanning electron microscopy correlate to microstructures visible at sub micrometer scales by transmission electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction ebsd to unify observations of planar microstructures in zircon made at different scales into a consistent framework we integrate the results of 1 three dimensional crystallographic modeling of planar microstructure orientations with 2 360 external prism backscattered electron imaging at the grain scale and 3 polished section cathodoluminescence and ebsd analysis at the sub micrometer scale for a suite of detrital shocked zircons eroded from the vredefort dome in south africa our combined approach resulted in the documentation of seven planar microstructure orientations that can be correlated from grain to sub micrometer scales of observation 010 100 112 112 112 1 12 and 011 all orientations of planar microstructures exhibit minor variations in style however all are considered to be fractures no amorphous zrsio4 lamellae were identified we therefore favor the usage of planar fracture pf over planar deformation feature pdf for describing the observed planar microstructures in zircon based broadly on the nomenclature developed for shocked quartz some 112 pfs visible at the grain scale contain impact microtwins detectable by ebsd and are the first report of polysynthetic twinning in zircon the microtwins consist of parallel sets of thin lamellae of zircon oriented 65 about and occur in multiple crosscutting 112 orientations within single grains curviplanar fractures and injected melt are additional impact related microstructures associated with pf formation crosscutting relations of shock microstructures reveal the following chronology 1 early development of c axis parallel pfs in 010 and 100 orientations 2 the development of up to four 112 pfs including some with microtwins 3 the development of curviplanar fractures and the injection of impact derived melt 4 the development of 011 pfs associated with compressional deformation and 5 grain scale non discrete crystal plastic deformation experimental constraints for the onset of pfs together with the absence of reidite suggest formation conditions from 20 to 40 gpa for all of the planar microstructures described here

magnitude of isotope temperature scaling for interpretation of central antarctic ice cores 1 the conventional interpretation of ice core deuterium and oxygen 18 isotope profiles based on the use of present day observations spatial slope underestimates glacialinterglacial surface temperature changes in central greenland by up to a factor of two this likely results from changes in the seasonality of the precipitation due to the particular location of the greenland ice sheet next to the highly variable northern polar front in this regard the situation is much simpler for central antarctica and this should be reflected in the temperature interpretation of ice core isotopic records with this in mind we closely examine all relevant information focusing on the east antarctic plateau where both model and empirical isotope temperature estimates are available we point to the fact that correctly accounting for the influence of ocean isotopic change is important when interpreting deuterium profiles from ice cores in this region the evidence presently available indicates that unlike for greenland the present day spatial slope can probably be taken as a surrogate of the temporal slope to interpret glacial interglacial isotopic changes at sites such as vostok and epica dome c corresponding temperature changes are within 10 to 30 of those obtained from the conventional interpretation based on the use of the spatial slope index terms 1040 geochemistry isotopic composition chemistry 1827 hydrology glaciology 1863 3344 meteorology and atmospheric dynamics paleoclimatology 9310 information related to geographic region antarctica keywords water isotopes temperature estimate antarctica deuterium oxygen 18

impact triggered nanoscale pb clustering and pb loss domains in archean zircon zircon microcrystals are found in many planetary crustal rocks and nanoscale research on grains from well characterized impact environments on earth provide a baseline for reconstructing extreme shock and thermal histories elsewhere however using zircon to date large impact events can be challenging given that shock related isotopic re setting of u pb ratios when measured at micrometre scale is often incomplete and difficult to interpret as the underlying pb migration mechanisms are unclear to better understand shocked zircon u pb systematics we performed atom probe tomography and electron microscopy with the previous sims analyses of two shock metamorphosed mesoarchean zircon grains from deep 15 km beneath the centre of the 2 020 ga giant vredefort impact structure we find evidence of two types of impact related nanoscale pb mobility in one grain clustering has produced 10 nm diameter bodies of radiogenic pb unsupported by u and co located with al with an average 207pb 206pb ratio of 0 50 n 4 the value extant in the grain at the time of impact conversely nearby nanodomains exhibit randomly distributed radiogenic pb u and al and yield 206pb 238u dates consistent with 100 loss of pre impact radiogenic pb atoms during shock metamorphic processes notably domains with multiple pb clusters occur within micrometres of domains that experienced 100 pb loss precluding a uniform radial pattern of thermally driven pb diffusion at the grain scale these cases of broadly coeval clustering and outward pb mobility during geologically instantaneous shock metamorphism point to unusually rapid multi path diffusion processes within sub micrometre volumes which when averaged yield normally discordant u pb dates the isolation of spatially variable styles of pb retention and loss at nanoscale amidst classical grain scale shock microstructures shows promise for recognizing and resolving bombardment histories in planetary crusts using zircon

archean crustal structure of the kaapvaal craton south africa evidence from the vredefort dome abstract crystalline archean basement rocks in the core of the vredefort dome present a profile through a substantial part of the middle and lower crust of the kaapvaal craton previously this profile has been subdivided into two terranes with allegedly distinct lithologies and tectonometamorphic histories that were juxtaposed along a crustal scale late archean brittle ductile thrust zone lithological and structural mapping across the dome indicates however that the basement lithologies share a common polyphase tectonic history culminating in high grade metamorphism and melting at 3 1 ga no evidence was found of the postulated tectonic terrane boundary but the alleged boundary does coincide with a 1 2 km wide transition zone between upper amphibolite facies migmatitic gneisses and more restitic granulite facies gneisses the implications of these results for archean regional tectonic models for the kaapvaal craton are discussed

archean age for the granulite facies metamorphism near the center of the vredefort structure south africa granulite facies metamorphic assemblages in rocks exposed near the center of the 2 02 ga vredefort impact structure previously have been interpreted either as early proterozoic genetically related to the 2060 ma bushveld complex or as archean and representative of lower crust that rebounded to upper crustal levels following an impact event zircon and monazite recovered from the granulite facies rocks record high grade metamorphism at 3107 9 ma and a primary age of 3425 ma for detrital zircon a shock deformed but otherwise pristine dolerite dike that intrudes the granulite terrane yields a u pb zircon age of 2560 ma providing a minimum age for the metamorphism these isotopic age data are difficult to reconcile with a regional high grade metamorphic event in the crust beneath vredefort at 2060 ma instead the preimpact high temperature metamorphic history observed in the vredefort lower crustal rocks indicates an enigmatic high temperature event during the stabilization of diamondiferous archean tectosphere

geochemical and geochronological constraints on the nature of the immediate basement next to the mesoarchaean auriferous witwatersrand basin south africa acombined petrological geochemical and geochronological rb srand sm nd whole rock u pb and lu hf zircon and ar arhornblende study on a section of pre witwatersrand basementdrilled at the northwestern margin of thewitwatersrand basin hasrevealed new insights into the nature and tectonic setting of thelikely source area for some of the mesoarchaean auriferouswitwatersrand sediments the protolithsof intersected alteredgran ite and hornblende metagabbro are of indistinguishable age 3062 5 ma and have very similar geochemical signatures trace element characteristics typical of calc alkaline magmatismand evidence of variable contamination with older crust subchon dritic e

changes in the configuration of ice stream flow from the west antarctic ice sheet surface based ice penetrating radar profiles on the northeast flank of siple dome support the hypothesis that a curvilinear scar first observed in advanced very high resolution radiometer satellite imagery represents the margin of a formerly active ice stream the scar defines the southwestern boundary of an ice stream flowing from ice stream c to ice stream d close to where it enters the ross ice shelf our studies show that the scar coincides with a trough and upward step in surface topography approximately 5 km across underlain by a zone of disturbed internal stratigraphy revealed by the radar burial depth of the disturbed zone enables us to calculate the time of shutdown as occurring prior to approximately 1 3 ka the configuration of the ice streams draining the west antarctic ice sheet into the ross ice shelf evidently changes with time and attempts to predict the evolution of the ice sheet must incorporate this observation

ice shelf changes in pine island bay antarctica 1947 2000 aerial photographs from 1947 and 1966 satellite optical imagery from 1973 and 1980 and interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar data from 1992 1996 and 2000 are employed to detect ice shelf changes in pine island bay antarctica the front position of the fast flowing central ice shelf did not migrate discernibly over the past 50 years new cracks and rifts appeared in the 1990s however that reveal a major weakening of the ice shelf at the grounding line center the ice shelf thinned 21 m in 8 years the northern slow moving ice shelf also shows signs of decay 1 its calving front is retreating at an accelerating rate and 2 the ice shelf is slowly unpinning from its bedrock anchors these changes are taking place in a region well beyond the temperature dependent limit of viability of ice shelves and hence differ from those observed along the antarctica peninsula they are likely due to a change in oceanic forcing not to a change in air temperature one possibility is that the documented intrusion of warm circumpolar deep water on the continental shelf has increased basal melting compared to that required to maintain the ice shelf in a state of mass balance and that this has triggered a general retreat of ice in this sector

anisotropic ice flow leading to the onset of ice stream d west antarctica numerical modelling based on the observations from byrd station borehole an ice sheet flowlinemodel is used to simulate the flow of ice along two particle paths toward the onset to ice stream d west antarctica one path is near the centre line of the main tributary to the ice stream while the second passes by the byrd station borehole site in this paper we analyze the flow of the moderately fast flowing tributaries in terms of ice fabric anisotropy and estimate the steady state ice flow regions with the compatible developed crystal orientation fabrics along two particle paths comparison between modelled isochrones and internal layers detected from radio echo sounding surveys in the area is used to suggest that flow upstream of the onset to ice stream d appears to have been stable since at least the last glacial maximum