implications of till deformation on glacier dynamics the dynamics of glacier motion are governed to a large extent by the properties of the basal interface in this paper we address the interaction of a glacier with a layer of till at its bed in an attempt to test whether our physical understanding of till is sufficient to explain general features of the observed flow field and changes in geometry of black rapids glacier alaska u s a we also investigate whether or not a till layer has a clear surface observable signature in the dynamics of the glacier towards this end we use a finite element ice flow model with a coulomb failure criterion within the basal till layer we find that simple till physics can be used to describe decadal seasonal and short term hours to days velocity variations and possibly uplift events mechanisms for each of these variations involve an increase in the extent of till at failure a transfer of shear stress across the bed and a consequent increase in ice deformation effective shape factors are calculated that permit a simple incorporation of this boundary condition into glacier response models our analyses however have not resulted in the identification of a clear and unique signature of a till layer in the surface dynamics of a glacier

equilibrium line altitude variations with latitude today and during the late wisconsin abstract present day and late wisconsin glacier equilibrium line altitudes ela were compared on a transect from patagonia along the coastal cordillera to alaska and a transect from mexico along the sierra madre rocky mountains to alaska late wisconsin ela s were determined from cirques occupied during the late wisconsin and present day ela from observations of active cirque glaciers the mean change in ela from the late wisconsin to the present was 735 m with a standard deviation of 120 m this indicates that the change in snowline altitude from the present to the late wisconsin was approximately uniform and not latitudinally dependent

variability in the mass flux of the ross ice streams west antarctica over the last millennium we synthesize previously published remote sensing observations radar data and model output to obtain a 1000 year ice flow history for the siple coast ice stream system in west antarctica to investigate the timing and magnitude of changes in mass flux the synthesized history shows significant short term variability in ice stream shear margin and grounding line position due to internal variability of the coupled system the chronology highlights the interplay between adjacent ice streams which implies that the behavior of any individual ice stream should not be examined in isolation furthermore individual events cannot be fully interpreted without an understanding of the broad scale long term variability in the ice sheet in the context of this millennium scale history we interpret the relatively recent stagnation of kamb ice stream kis as just one stage in the thermodynamic cycle of an ice stream in this region the changes in mass balance that result from the kis stagnation may thus be viewed as century scale noise relative to the longer term trend understanding and characterizing this noise is a necessary step before accurate model based predictions of ice sheet mass balance for the next century can be made

shear margins in glaciers and ice sheets analytical and numerical techniques are used to examine the flow response of a sloped slab of power law fluid power n subjected to basal boundary conditions that vary spatially across the flow direction as for example near an ice stream margin with planar basal topography the primary assumption is that basal shear stress is proportional to the basal speed time a spatially variable slip resistance the ratio of mean basal speed to the speed originating from shearing through the thickness denoted as r gives a measure of how slippery the bed is the principal conclusion is that a localized disturbance in slip resistance affects the basal stress and speed in a zone spread over a greater width of the flow in units of ice thickness h the spatial scale of spreading is proportional to a single dimensionless number r n r n 1 1 n 1 derived from n and r the consequence for a shear zone above a sharp jump in slip resistance is that the shearing is spread out over a boundary layer with a width proportional to r n for an ice stream caused by a band of low slip resistance with a half width of wh the margins influence velocity and stress in the central part of the band depending on r n in comparison to w three regimes can be identified which for n 3 are quantified as follows low r defined as r 3 1w for which the boundary layers from both sides bridge across the full flow width and the driving stress in the center is supported almost entirely by side drag intermediate r for which the driving stress in the center is supported by a combination of basal and side drag shear zones that are narrower than predicted on the basis of this theory r 3 would require localized softening of the ice to explain the concentration of deformation at a shorter scale

laurentide ice sheet instability during the last deglaciation the factors leading to the full retreat of ice sheets during deglaciation are debated numerical modelling suggests that the laurentide ice sheet retreated only after a threshold for warming and radiative forcing was passed in the holocene

surface melt driven laurentide ice sheet retreat during the early holocene received 21 september 2009 revised 3 november 2009 accepted 30 november 2009 published 30 december 2009 1 to better understand mechanisms of ice sheet decay we investigate the surface mass balance of the laurentide ice sheet lis during the early holocene a period of known rapid lis retreat we use a surface energy mass balance model embm driven with conditions derived from an equilibrium atmosphere ocean general circulation model 9 kilo years ago simulation our embm indicates a net lis surface mass balance of 0 67 0 13 m yr 1 with losses primarily due to enhanced boreal summer insolation and warmer summers this rate of loss compared to lis volume reconstructions suggests that surface ablation accounted for 74 22 of the lis mass loss with the remaining loss likely driven by dynamics resulting in basal sliding and calving thus surface melting likely played a governing role in the retreat and disappearance of this ice sheet citation carlson a e f s anslow e a obbink a n legrande d j ullman and j m licciardi 2009 surface melt driven laurentide ice sheet retreat during the early holocene geophys res lett 36 l24502 doi 10 1029 2009gl040948

the role of ocean atmosphere reorganizations in glacial cycles abstract a case is made that glacial to interglacial transitions involve major reorganizations of the ocean atmosphere system such reorganizations constitute jumps between stable modes of operation which cause changes in the greenhouse gas content and albedo of the atmosphere only in this way can the rapidity of glacial terminations the hemispheric synchroneity and symmetry of mountain glaciation and the large polar air temperature and dustiness variations be accounted for if these reorganizations are driven in some fashion by orbitally induced seasonal insolation changes then the connection between insolation and climate is most likely through impacts of fresh water transport on the ocean s salinity distribution

model investigations of inland migration of fast flowing outlet glaciers and ice streams recent observations of increased discharge through fast flowing outlet glaciers and ice streams motivate questions concerning the inland migration of regions of fast flow which could increase drawdown of the ice sheet interior to investigate one process that could lead to inland migration we conduct experiments with a two dimensional full stress transient ice flow model an initial steady state is perturbed by initiating a jump in sliding speed over a fraction of the model domain as a result longitudinal stress gradients increase frictional melting upstream from the slow to fast sliding transition and a positive feedback between longitudinal stress gradients basal meltwater production and basal sliding causes the sliding transition to migrate upstream over time the distance and speed of migration depend on the magnitude of the perturbation and on the degree of non linearity assumed in the link between basal stress and basal sliding larger perturbations and or higher degrees of non linearity lead to farther and faster upstream migration migration of the sliding transition causes the ice sheet to thin over time and this change in geometry limits the effects of the positive feedback ultimately serving to impede continued upstream migration

binge purge oscillations of the laurentide ice sheet as a cause of the north atlantic s heinrich events ice rafted debris in sediment cores from the north atlantic suggests that the laurentide ice sheet lis periodically disgorged icebergs in brief but violent episodes which occurred approximately every 7 000 years here i propose that heinrich events i e what these episodes are called were caused by free oscillations in the flow of the laurentide ice sheet which arose because the floor of hudson bay and hudson strait is covered with soft unconsolidated sediment that forms a slippery lubricant when thawed the proposed heinrich event cycle has two phases the growth phase occurs when the sediment is frozen and the lis is stranded immobile on a rigid bed the volume of the lis slowly grows during this phase at a rate dictated by snow accumulation the purge phase occurs when the basal sediment thaws and a basally lubricated discharge pathway i e an ice stream such as those which occur in west antarctica today developes through hudson strait the volume of the lis rapidly equilibrates to the reduced basal friction during this phase by dumping icebergs into the labrador sea the periodicity t k sl2g 2 7000 years of the proposed heinrich event cycle is a function of the thermal conductivity and diffusivity of ice k and respectively the atmospheric sea level temperature sl in degrees celsius and the excess geothermal heat flux defined by g g k where is the atmospheric lapse rate and g is the geothermal heat flux agreement between the predicted t and the apparent periodicity implied by the marine record is the main virtue of the free oscillation mechanism i propose an alternative mechanism in which heinrich events are forced by periodic variations in external climate is implausible because periodic atmospheric temperature perturbations are strongly attenuated with depth in an ice sheet

shallow shelf approximation as a sliding law in a thermomechanically coupled ice sheet model 1 the shallow shelf approximation a balance of membrane stresses for ice flow is an effective sliding law for ice sheet modeling our use of it as a sliding law becomes a standard model for ice stream flow when the sliding velocity is large 100 m a 1 and faster following schoof 2006a we describe the basal resistance as plastic till for which the yield stress is given by a mohr coulomb formula pore water pressure is related to basal melt rate the velocity field used in the mass continuity and conservation of energy equations is an average of velocities from the shallow shelf approximation and the nonsliding shallow ice approximation using this scheme our model has realistic time dependent ice streams which exhibit the range of surface velocities seen in actual ice streams we demonstrate the model at high spatial resolution 5 km grid over multiple millenia using its implementation in the parallel ice sheet model numerical experiments show that the entire scheme is stable with respect to many parameter changes some experiments reveal significant ice stream variability in a hypothetical steady climate with characteristic cycles on the order of 1000 years we believe this is the first practical whole ice sheet model with a unified treatment of vertical shear stresses and membrane stresses it is capable of high resolution thermomechanically coupled multimillenia simulations of ice sheets containing ice streams

ice shelf collapse from subsurface warming as a trigger for heinrich events episodic iceberg discharge events from the hudson strait ice stream hsis of the laurentide ice sheet referred to as heinrich events are commonly attributed to internal ice sheet instabilities but their systematic occurrence at the culmination of a large reduction in the atlantic meridional overturning circulation amoc indicates a climate control we report mg ca data on benthic foraminifera from an intermediate depth site in the northwest atlantic and results from a climate model simulation that reveal basin wide subsurface warming at the same time as large reductions in the amoc with temperature increasing by approximately 2 c over a 1 2 kyr interval prior to a heinrich event in simulations with an ocean model coupled to a thermodynamically active ice shelf the increase in subsurface temperature increases basal melt rate under an ice shelf fronting the hsis by a factor of approximately 6 by analogy with recent observations in antarctica the resulting ice shelf loss and attendant hsis acceleration would produce a heinrich event

sea ice switch mechanism and glacial interglacial co2 variations 1 a physical mechanism is proposed for the glacial interglacial variations in the rate of vertical mixing and in sea ice cover in the southern ocean such variations were postulated without an explanation by toggweiler 1999 and stephens and keeling 2000 who used them to explain the glacial interglacial co2 variations in the physical mechanism explored here initially given by gildor and tziperman 2001b changes in the stratification of the southern ocean due to the cooling of north atlantic deep water nadw during glacial maxima reduce the rate of vertical mixing of the surface water with the deep water the changed temperature of the nadw arriving to the southern ocean and the reduced vertical mixing there also increase the southern ocean sea ice cover during glacial maxima these vertical mixing and sea ice cover changes are shown to be a natural result of the sea ice switch mechanism of the glacial cycles a box model of the climate system is used to demonstrate the above physical mechanism and its effect on the atmospheric co2 because of the uncertainties in the exact dependence of the vertical mixing on vertical stratification it is impossible to quantify the exact separate contribution of reduced vertical mixing and larger sea ice cover to the glacial co2 variations the co2 variations are not essential to the existence of the glacial cycles in the sea ice switch mechanism yet they are shown to amplify the glacial interglacial variability consistent with the view of the role of co2 deduced from proxy observations

stress gradient coupling in glacier flow i longitudinal averaging of the influence of ice thickness and surface slope for a glacier flowing over a bed of longitudinally varying slope the influence of longitudinal stress gradients on the flow is analyzed by means of a longitudinal flow coupling equation derived from the vertically cross sectionally integrated longitudinal stress equilibrium equation by an extension of an approach originally developed by budd 1968 linearization of the flow coupling equation by treating the flow velocity u vertically averaged ice thickness h and surface slope in terms of small deviations u h and a from overall average datum values u 0 h 0 and 0 results in a differential equation that can be solved by green s function methods giving u x as a function of h x and x x being the longitudinal coordinate the result has the form of a longitudinal averaging integral of the influence of local h x and x on the flow u x u x u0 2l l 0 ln n nh n l exp x x l dx where the integration is over the length l of the glacier the operator specified deviations from the datum state and the term on which it operates which is a function of the integration variable x represents the influence of local h x x and channel shape factor x at longitudinal coordinate x on the flow u at coordinate x the influence being weighted by the influence transfer function exp x x l in the integral the quantity l that appears as the scale length in the exponential weighting function is called the longitudinal coupling length it is determined by rheological parameters via the relationship l 2h n n 3n where n is the flowlaw exponent n the effective longitudinal viscosity and n the effective shear viscosity of the ice profile n is an average of the local effective viscosity n over the ice cross section and n 1 is an average of n 1 that gives strongly increased weight to values near the base theoretically the coupling length l is generally in the range one to three times the ice thickness for valley glaciers and four to ten times for ice sheets for a glacier in surge it is even longer l 12h it is distinctly longer for non linear n 3 than for linear rheology so that the flow coupling effects of longitudinal stress gradients are markedly greater for non linear flow the averaging integral indicates that the longitudinal variations in flow that occur under the influence of sinusoidal longitudinal variations in h or with wavelength are attenuated by the factor 1 1 2 l 2 relative to what they would be without longitudinal coupling the short intermediate and long scales of glacier motion raymond 1980 over which the longitudinal flow variations are strongly partially and little attenuated are for 2l 2l 20l and 20l for practical glacier flow calculations the exponential weighting function can be approximated by a symmetrical triangular averaging window of length 4l called the longitudinal averaging length the traditional rectangular window is a poor approximation because of the exponential weighting the local surface slope has an appreciable though muted effect on the local flow which is clearly seen in field examples contrary to what would result from a rectangular averaging window tested with field data for variegated glacier alaska and blue glacier washington the longitudinal averaging theory is able to account semi quantitatively for the observed longitudinal variations in flow of these glaciers and for the representation of flow in terms of effective surface slope values exceptions occur where the flow is augmented by large contributions from basal sliding in the ice fall and terminal zone of blue glacier and in the reach of surge initiation in variegated glacier the averaging length 4l that gives the best agreement between calculated and observed flow pattern is 2 5 km for variegated glacier and 1 8 km for blue glacier corresponding to l h 2 in both cases if l varies with x but not too rapidly the exponential weighting function remains a fairly good approximation to the exact green s function of the differential equation for longitudinal flow coupling in this approximation l in the averaging integral is l x but is not a function of x effects of longitudinal variation of l are probably important near the glacier terminus and head and near ice falls the longitudinal averaging formulation can also be used to express the local basal shear stress in terms of longitudinal variations in the local stope stress with the mediation of longitudinal stress gradients

integrated summer insolation forcing and 40 000 year glacial cycles the perspective from an ice sheet energy balance model although the origins of the 40 000 year glacial cycles during the early pleistocene are readily attributed to changes in earth s obliquity also having a 40 000 year period the lack of ice volume variability at precession periods 20 000 years is difficult to reconcile with most parameterizations of the insolation forcing it was recently proposed that precession s influence on glaciation is muted because variations in the intensity of summer insolation are counterbalanced by changes in the duration of the summertime but no climate model has yet been shown to generate obliquity period glacial cycles in response to the seasonal insolation forcing here we present a coupled ice sheet energy balance model that reproduces the seasonal cycle and when run over long time periods generates glacial variability in response to changes in earth s orbital configuration the model is forced by the full seasonal cycle in insolation and its response can be understood within the context of the integrated summer insolation forcing the simple fact that obliquity s period is roughly twice as long as that of precession results in a larger amplitude glacial response to obliquity however for the model to generate almost exclusively obliquity period glacial variability two other conditions must be met first the ice sheet s ablation zone must reside poleward of 60 n because insolation intensity is more sensitive to changes in earth s obliquity at high latitudes second the ablation season must be long enough for precession s opposing influences on summer and fall insolation intensity to counterbalance one another these conditions are consistent with a warm climate and a thin ice sheet where the latter is simulated as a response to subglacial sediment deformation if a colder climate is prescribed or in the absence of basal motion ice sheets tend to be larger and undergo greater precession period variability in keeping with proxy observations of late pleistocene glaciation

potential antarctic ice sheet retreat driven by hydrofracturing and ice cliff failure abstract geological data indicate that global mean sea level has fluctuated on 103 to 106 yr time scales during the last 25 million years at times reaching 20 m or more above modern if correct this implies substantial variations in the size of the east antarctic ice sheet eais however most climate and ice sheet models have not been able to simulate significant eais retreat from continental size given that atmospheric co2 levels were relatively low throughout this period here we use a continental ice sheet model to show that mechanisms based on recent observations and analysis have the potential to resolve this model data conflict in response to atmospheric and ocean temperatures typical of past warm periods floating ice shelves may be drastically reduced or removed completely by increased oceanic melting and by hydrofracturing due to surface melt draining into crevasses ice at deep grounding lines may be weakened by hydrofracturing and reduced buttressing and may fail structurally if stresses exceed the ice yield strength producing rapid retreat incorporating these mechanisms in our ice sheet model accelerates the expected collapse of the west antarctic ice sheet to decadal time scales and also causes retreat into major east antarctic subglacial basins producing 17 m global sea level rise within a few thousand years the mechanisms are highly parameterized and should be tested by further process studies but if accurate they offer one explanation for past sea level high stands and suggest that antarctica may be more vulnerable to warm climates than in most previous studies

sensitivity experiments with a model of the ice age cycle the response to milankovitch forcing abstract we address the question of the extent to which a simple one dimensional time dependent climate model is able to explain the fluctuations of continental ice volume which have occurred during the last quarter of the pleistocene epoch the model includes explicit ice physics based on the glen flow law and explicit glacial isostatic adjustment based on a realistic viscoelastic field theory when the model is forced by the milankovitch variations of insulation it delivers ice volume fluctuations which are very similar to those implied by the specmap 18o record in particular the model appears capable of explaining the observed correlation between eccentricity and ice volume variations the dominance of the 105 year period in the power spectrum of the ice volume time series and the thickness and latitudinal extents of the continental ice sheets which existed at wurm wisconsin maximum 18 000 years ago

deglaciation of a soft bedded laurentide ice sheet we present a series of numerical reconstructions of the laurentide ice sheet during the last deglaciation 18 7 14c ka that evaluates the sensitivity of ice sheet geometry to subglacial sediment deformation these reconstructions assume that the laurentide ice sheet flowed over extensive areas of water saturated deforming sediment soft beds corresponding to the st lawrence lowland the great lakes region the western prairies of the u s and canada and the hudson bay and hudson strait regions sediment rheology is based on a constitutive law that incorporates experimental results from late wisconsin till deposited by the laurentide ice sheet which suggest only mildly nonlinear viscoplastic behavior by varying the effective viscosity of till we produced four reconstructions for the ice sheet during the last glacial maximum 18 14c ka and two reconstructions each of the ice sheet at 14 13 12 11 and 10 14c ka we also produced one reconstruction for 9 8 4 8 and 7 14c ka reconstructions that assume a low effective viscosity for all areas of deforming sediment show a multidomed ice sheet with a large bowl shaped depression over hudson bay and thin ice 1000 m above modern sea level over the western and southern margins those reconstructions that assume a higher effective viscosity of till in the hudson bay region than for the western and southern margins also show a multidomed ice sheet but with considerably thicker ice over hudson bay and a more northerly position of the central ice divide these two different geometries may represent ice sheet orographic changes associated with a heinrich event further increases in effective viscosity of till approaching the effective viscosity of ice would result in a high monolithic ice dome centered over hudson bay reinforcing the notion that a multidomed ice sheet reflects the distribution of substrate geology modeled ice surface geometry at the last glacial maximum shows many of the same general features as previous reconstructions that incorporate deformable beds our reconstructions with higher effective till viscosities in hudson bay also agree with the ice 4g reconstructions peltier 1994 which are based on inversion of relative sea level data for the early part of the last deglaciation 18 13 14c ka but then depart significantly from ice 4g beginning at about 12 14c ka due to differing assumptions of the history of deglaciation modeled ice volume for the last glacial maximum suggests a glacioeustatic change of 50 55 m by a soft bedded laurentide ice sheet this would increase as the effective viscosity of till increases subsequent ice volume changes through the last deglaciation generally parallel the trend of eustatic rise recorded at barbados new guinea and tahiti but suggest that the laurentide ice sheet was not the source of meltwater pulse 1a

palaeo ice streams abstract the location and behaviour of ice streams is one of the most important controls on ice sheet configuration and stability in order to reconstruct former ice sheets we need to know ice stream location and timing once identified the beds of palaeo ice streams provide an unprecedented opportunity to glean information about their basal environment something that remains very difficult under contemporary ice streams this paper represents the first synthesis and discussion of palaeo ice stream research from a variety of former ice sheets and includes new insights relating their configuration and activity to the evidence they leave behind the ambiguous use of the term ice stream is addressed and four possible configurations for ice streams are presented diagnostic landforms and landform assemblages that we would expect an ice stream to produce are discussed and the temporal context of bedform generation is described as either a rubber stamped or smudged bedform imprint resulting from isochronous or time transgressive landform generation in particular we focus on the configuration of terrestrially terminating ice streams for which there are no modern analogues technological advances in marine geophysics are helping to generate a convergence of interest between antarctic glaciology and palaeo glaciology it is suggested that investigations around the fringes of contemporary ice sheets i e west antarctica can provide evidence that directly links the geomorphological record of palaeo ice streams with their contemporary counterparts in addition computational advances and modelling adaptations have permitted the incorporation of ice streams within ice sheet models we argue that data from palaeo ice stream beds are invaluable to ice sheet stream modelling experiments and will help us understand ice stream operation and the linkages between climate perturbations and both palaeo and contemporary ice sheets

a low order dynamical model of global climatic variability over the full pleistocene a previously formulated dynamical model of the late pleistocene ice ages based on the hypothesis that the global co sub 2 system can provide the instability to drive a natural oscillation involving feedbacks between the cryosphere atmosphere and ocean is extended to include 1 additive earth orbital forcing summer insolation changes at 65 degree n and 2 tectonic forcing in the form of a postulated variation in the multiplicative parameters rate constants of the model system the structural e g bifurcation properties of the model are examined in detail to reveal the regions of parameter space wherein the geologically inferred features of the full pleistocene can be simulated including the observed chronology the phase relationships between ice co sub 2 and north atlantic deep water formation and the mid pleistocene transition

consequences of pacing the pleistocene 100 kyr ice ages by nonlinear phase locking to milankovitch forcing 1 the consequences of the hypothesis that milankovitch forcing affects the phase e g termination times of the 100 kyr glacial cycles via a mechanism known as nonlinear phase locking are examined phase locking provides a mechanism by which milankovitch forcing can act as the pacemaker of the glacial cycles nonlinear phase locking can determine the timing of the major deglaciations nearly independently of the specific mechanism or model that is responsible for these cycles as long as this mechanism is suitably nonlinear a consequence of this is that the fit of a certain model output to the observed ice volume record cannot be used as an indication that the glacial mechanism in this model is necessarily correct phase locking to obliquity and possibly precession variations is distinct from mechanisms relying on a linear or nonlinear amplification of the eccentricity forcing nonlinear phase locking may determine the phase of the glacial cycles even in the presence of noise in the climate system and can be effective at setting glacial termination times even when the precession and obliquity bands account only for a small portion of the total power of an ice volume record nonlinear phase locking can also result in the observed quantization of the glacial period into multiples of the obliquity or precession periods

a thermomechanical model of ice flow in west antarctica this study uses a three dimensional thermo mechanical model to investigate the internal flow dynamics of the west antarctic ice sheet wais the model allows ice thickness flow and temperature to interact freely its domain is prescribed as that of the present day grounded wais realistic present day climatic and topographical boundary conditions are employed the analysis of a series of experiments pays particular attention to the location and dynamics of concentrations of ice flow ice streams underlying topographic troughs are crucial in determining the strength and location of these concentrations of flow the flow pattern generated by subglacial troughs is made more distinct by the inclusion of ice flow temperature coupling the inclusion of sliding leads to the generation of limit cycles in the ice flow they are concentrated around the present day ice streams b and c of the siple coast and have a period of 5 to 10 ky there appears to be competition between several preferred ice flow pathways in this area the two end members of the flow regime are a strong ice stream c with a weakened ice stream a b complex and strong ice streams a and b with a dormant ice stream c ice streams appear to require ice discharges above a certain threshold in order to maintain frictional heat generation and fast flow individual ice streams can therefore interact through changes in catchment area size a reduction in catchment area reduces the volume of ice entering a stream and can cause stagnation as the amount of frictional heating falls

rapid grounding line migration induced by internal ice stream variability observations indicate that the grounding line position of west antarctica is sensitive to both forced and unforced ice stream variabilities this study endeavors to characterize and understand unforced ice stream variability and associated grounding line migration we use a flowline ice stream model with an undrained plastic bed lateral shear stresses and a stretched grid refined in the grounding zone this model exhibits parameter space structure and hysteresis behavior similar to simpler ice stream models low prescribed temperature at the ice surface or weak geothermal heating produces thermal oscillations between active and stagnant phases as in previous spatially resolved ice flow models thermal activation propagates as an activation wave this model s fine resolution of the grounding zone allows for accurate simulations of transient unforced grounding line migration upstream of the grounding zone horizontal grid spacing of 1 km is required to accurately resolve activation waves activation waves induce the grounding line to migrate over 100 km at a rate that can exceed 1 km yr this is followed during the active phase by retreat which then continues for the duration of the stagnant phase grounding line retreat is the result of a negative mass balance near the grounding line but is not necessarily associated with negative mass balance for the entire ice stream in our simulations of internal variability the novel approach and experiments described in this study show that there can be large excursions in grounding line position in the absence of either external forcing or retrograde slopes

sea ice as the glacial cycles climate switch role of seasonal and orbital forcing a box model of the coupled ocean atmosphere sea ice and land ice climate system is used to study glacial interglacial oscillations under seasonally and orbitally varying solar forcing the dominant 100 kyr oscillation in land ice volume has the familiar sawtooth shape of climate proxy records and to zeroth order it does not depend on the seasonal and milankovitch forcing the sea ice controls via its albedo and insulating effects the atmospheric moisture fluxes and precipitation that enable the land ice sheet growth this control and the rapid growth and melting of the sea ice allow the sea ice to rapidly switch the climate system from a growing ice sheet phase to a retreating ice sheet phase and to shape the oscillation s sawtooth structure a specific physical mechanism is proposed by which the insolation changes act as a pacemaker setting the phase of the oscillation by directly controlling summer melting of ice sheets this mechanism is shown to induce deglaciations during periods of lower summer insolation superimposed on the 100 kyr are the linear milankovitch forced frequencies of 19 23 and 41 kyr the transition from 41 kyr glacial cycles to 100 kyr cycles one million years ago may be explained as being due to the activation of the sea ice switch at that time this would be the case if sea ice extent was more limited during the warmer climate of the early pleistocene

large scale instabilities of the laurentide ice sheet simulated in a fully coupled climate system model 1 heinrich events related to large scale surges of the laurentide ice sheet represent one of the most dramatic types of abrupt climate change occurring during the last glacial here using a coupled atmosphere ocean biosphereice sheet model we simulate quasi periodic large scale surges from the laurentide ice sheet the average time between simulated events is about 7 000 yrs while the surging phase of each event lasts only several hundred years with a total ice volume discharge corresponding to 5 10 m of sea level rise in our model the simulated ice surges represent internal oscillations of the ice sheet at the same time our results suggest the possibility of a synchronization between instabilities of different ice sheets as indicated in paleoclimate records index terms 1827 hydrology glaciology 1863 1620 global change climate dynamics 3309 3344 meteorology and atmospheric dynamics paleoclimatology 5416 planetology solid surface planets glaciation citation calov r a ganopolski v petoukhov m claussen and r greve largescale instabilities of the laurentide ice sheet simulated in a fully coupled climate system model geophys res lett 29 24 2216 doi 10 1029 2002gl016078 2002

coupled energy balance ice sheet model simulations of the glacial cycle a possible connection between terminations and terrigenous dust we apply a coupled energy balance ice sheet climate model in an investigation of northern hemisphere ice sheet advance and retreat over the last glacial cycle when driven only by orbital insolation variations the model predicts ice sheet advances over the continents of north america and eurasia that are in good agreement with geological reconstructions in terms of the timescale of advance and the spatial positioning of the main ice masses the orbital forcing alone however is unable to induce the observed rapid ice sheet retreat and we conclude that additional climatic feedbacks not explicitly included in the basic model must be acting in the analyses presented here we have parameterized a number of potentially important effects in order to test their relative influence on the process of glacial termination these include marine instability thermohaline circulation effects carbon dioxide variations and snow albedo changes caused by dust loading during periods of high atmospheric aerosol concentration for the purpose of these analyses the temporal changes in the latter two variables were inferred from ice core records of these various influences our analyses suggest that the albedo variations in the ice sheet ablation zone caused by dust loading may represent an extremely important ablation mechanism using our parameterization of dirty snow in the ablation zone we find glacial retreat to be strongly accelerated such that complete collapse of the otherwise stable laurentide ice sheet ensues the last glacial maximum configurations of the laurentide and fennoscandian complexes are also brought into much closer accord with the ice 3g reconstruction of tushingham and peltier 1991 1992 and the ice 4g reconstruction of peltier 1994 when this effect is reasonably introduced

sea level as a stabilizing factor for marine ice sheet grounding lines climate change could potentially destabilize marine ice sheets which would affect projections of future sea level rise1 2 3 4 specifically an instability mechanism5 6 7 8 has been predicted for marine ice sheets such as the west antarctic ice sheet that rest on reversed bed slopes whereby ice sheet thinning or rising sea level leads to irreversible retreat of the grounding line however existing analyses of this instability mechanism have not accounted for deformational and gravitational effects that lead to a sea level fall at the margin of a rapidly shrinking ice sheet9 10 11 here we present a suite of predictions of gravitationally self consistent sea level change following grounding line migration our predictions vary the initial ice sheet size and also consider the contribution to sea level change from various subregions of the simulated ice sheet using these results we revisit a canonical analysis of marine ice sheet stability5 and demonstrate that gravity and deformation induced sea level changes local to the grounding line contribute a stabilizing influence on ice sheets grounded on reversed bed slopes we conclude that accurate treatments of sea level change should be incorporated into analyses of past and future marine ice sheet dynamics

ice streams in the laurentide ice sheet identification characteristics and comparison to modern ice sheets this paper presents a comprehensive review and synthesis of ice streams in the laurentide ice sheet lis based on a new mapping inventory that includes previously hypothesised ice streams and includes a concerted effort to search for others from across the entire ice sheet bed the inventory includes 117 ice streams which have been identified based on a variety of evidence including their bedform imprint large scale geomorphology topography till properties and ice rafted debris in ocean sediment records despite uncertainty in identifying ice streams in hard bedrock areas it is unlikely that any major ice streams have been missed during the last glacial maximum laurentide ice streams formed a drainage pattern that bears close resemblance to the present day velocity patterns in modern ice sheets large ice streams had extensive onset zones and were fed by multiple tributaries and where ice drained through regions of high relief the spacing of ice streams shows a degree of spatial self organisation which has hitherto not been recognised topography exerted a primary control on the location of ice streams but there were large areas along the western and southern margin of the ice sheet where the bed was composed of weaker sedimentary bedrock and where networks of ice streams switched direction repeatedly and probably over short time scales as the ice sheet retreated onto its low relief interior several ice streams show no correspondence with topography or underlying geology perhaps facilitated by localised build up of pressurised subglacial meltwater they differed from most other ice stream tracks in having much lower length to width ratios and have no modern analogues there have been very few attempts to date the initiation and cessation of ice streams but it is clear that ice streams switched on and off during deglaciation rather than maintaining the same trajectory as the ice margin retreated we provide a first order estimate of changes in ice stream activity during deglaciation and show that around 30 of the margin was drained by ice streams at the lgm similar to that for present day antarctic ice sheets but this decreases to 15 and 12 at 12 cal ka bp and 10 cal ka bp respectively the extent to which these changes in the ice stream drainage network represent a simple and predictable readjustment to a changing mass balance driven by climate or internal ice dynamical feedbacks unrelated to climate or both is largely unknown and represents a key area for future work to address

geophysical characteristics of the continental crust along the lithoprobe eastern canadian shield onshore offshore transect ecsoot a review the eastern canadian shield onshore offshore transect ecsoot of the lithoprobe program included 1200 km of normal incidence seismic profiles and seven wide angle seismic profiles across archean and proterozoic rocks of labrador northern quebec and the surrounding marine areas archean crust is 33 44 km thick p wave velocity increases downwards from 6 0 to 6 9 km s there is moderate crustal reflectivity but the reflection moho is unclear archean crust that stabilized in the proterozoic is similar except for greater reflectivity and a well defined moho proterozoic crust has similar or greater thickness variable lower crustal velocities and strong crustal reflectivity geodynamic processes of paleoproterozoic growth of the canadian shield are similar to those observed in modern collisional orogens the suturing of the archean core zone and superior provinces involved whole crustal shearing top to west in the core zone linked to thin skinned deformation in the new quebec orogen the torngat orog

a data calibrated distribution of deglacial chronologies for the north american ice complex from glaciological modeling article i nfo past deglacial ice sheet reconstructions have generally relied upon discipline specific constraints with no at tention given to the determination of objective confidence intervals reconstructions based on geophysical inversion of relative sea level rsl data have the advantage of large sets of proxy data but lack ice mechanical constraints conversely reconstructions based on dynamical ice sheet models are glaciologically self consistent but depend on poorly constrained climate forcings and sub glacial processes as an example of a much better constrained methodology that computes explicit error bars we present a dis tribution of high resolution glaciologically self consistent deglacial histories for the north american ice com plex calibrated against a large set of rsl marine limit and geodetic data the history is derived from ensemble based analyses using the 3d mun glacial systems model and a high resolution ice margin chronol ogy derived from geological and geomorphological observations isostatic response is computed with the vm5a viscosity structure bayesian calibration of the model is carried out using markov chain monte carlo methods in combination with artificial neural networks trained to the model results the calibration provides a posterior distribution for model parameters and thereby modeled glacial histories given the observational data sets that takes data uncertainty into account final ensemble results also account for fits between com puted and observed strandlines and marine limits given the model including choice of calibration parameters input and constraint data sets and vm5a earth rhe ology we find the north american contribution to mwp1a was likely between 9 4 and 13 2 m eustatic over a 500 year interval this is more than half of the total 16 to 26 m meltwater pulse over 500 to 700 years with lower values being more probable indicated by the barbados coral record fairbanks 1989 peltier and fairbanks 2006 if one assumes a 5 meter living range for the acropora palmata coral 20 ka ice volume for north america was likely 70 1 2 0 m eustatic or about 60 of the total contribution to eustatic sea level change we suspect that the potentially most critical unquantified uncertainties in our analyses are those related to model structure especially climate forcing deglacial ice margin chronology and earth rheology

on glacial inception and orography abstract there is no doubt that orography plays a crucial role in the initiation of ice sheets mass balance observations on glaciers in high mountain and polar climates show that the specific balance varies first of all with altitude the height mass balance feedback hmb feedback is the most effective process to turn local ice caps into big ice sheets here a study is presented on the processes that determine the strength of the hmb feedback this is done by carrying out a set of integrations with a numerical ice sheet model for a bounded domain and a sinusoidally varying bed shape results are analysed for different wavenumbers and amplitudes it turns out that the relative importance of the geometric effect higher mountains allow earlier glacierisation and the ice mechanical effect dependence of ice flow on the bed slope varies significantly with wavenumber and amplitude with regard to full glaciation of the domain this implies that for a given wavenumber there is a preferred amplitude that is the drop in the equilibrium line altitude needed to initiate full glaciation has a minimum

a numerical investigation of ice lobe permafrost interaction around the southern laurentide ice sheet permafrost existed around and under marginal parts of the southern laurentide ice sheet during the last glacial maximum the presence of permafrost was important in determining the extent form and dynamics of ice lobes and the landforms they produced because of influences on resistance to basal motion and subglacial hydrology we develop a two dimensional time dependent model of permafrost and glacier ice dynamics along a flowline to examine i the extent to which permafrost survives under an advancing ice lobe and how it influences landform development and hydrology and ii the influence of permafrost on ice motion and surface profile the model is applied to the green bay lobe which terminated near madison wisconsin during the last glacial maximum simulations of ice advance over permafrost indicate that the bed upstream of the ice sheet margin was frozen for 60 200 km at the glacial maximum permafrost remained for centuries to a few thousand years under advancing ice and penetrated sufficiently deep tens of meters into the underlying aquifer that drainage of basal meltwater became inefficient likely resulting in water storage beneath the glacier our results highlight the influence of permafrost on subglacial conditions even though uncertainties in boundary conditions such as climate exist

links between ocean temperature and iceberg discharge during heinrich events the last glacial period was punctuated by several periods of massive iceberg discharge from the northern hemisphere ice sheets numerical simulations indicate that these discharge events are linked to an interplay between ice sheet accumulation marine ice shelf stability and periodically oscillating surface ocean temperature

origin of the middle pleistocene transition by ice sheet erosion of regolith the transition in the middle pleistocene 0 9 ma seen in 18o deep sea core records from relatively low amplitude high frequency 41 kyr to high amplitude low frequency 100 kyr ice volume variations under essentially the same orbital forcing can be attributed to a change from an all soft bedded to a mixed hard soft bedded laurentide ice sheet through glacial erosion of a thick regolith and resulting exposure of unweathered crystalline bedrock a one dimensional ice sheet and bedrock model which includes transport of sediment and ice by subglacial sediment deformation demonstrates that a widespread deforming sediment layer maintains thin ice sheets before the transition which respond linearly to the dominant 23 and 41 kyr orbital forcing progressive removal of the sediment layer eventually causes a transition to thicker ice sheets whose dominant timescale of change 100 kyr reflects nonlinear deglaciation processes in model simulations over the last 3 ma initialized with no ice and a uniform 50 m sediment layer the time series of ice volume and extent agree in several important aspects with the observed records

numerical modeling of late glacial laurentide advance of ice across hudson strait insights into terrestrial and marine geology mass balance and calving flux a time dependent finite element model was used to reconstruct the advance of ice from a late glacial dome on northern quebec labrador across hudson strait to meta incognita peninsula baffin island and subsequently to the 9 9 9 6 ka 14c gold cove position on hall peninsula terrestrial geological and geophysical information from quebec and labrador was used to constrain initial and boundary conditions and the model results are compared with terrestrial geological information from baffin island and considered in the context of the marine event dc 0 and the younger dryas cooling we conclude that advance across hudson strait from ungava bay to baffin island is possible using realistic glacier physics under a variety of reasonable boundary conditions production of ice flux from a dome centered on northeastern quebec and labrador sufficient to deliver geologically inferred ice thickness at gold cove hall peninsula appears to require extensive penetration of sliding south from ungava bay the discharge of ice into the ocean associated with advance and retreat across hudson strait does not peak at a time coincident with the start of the younger dryas and is less than minimum values proposed to influence north atlantic thermohaline circulation nevertheless a significant fraction of freshwater input to the north atlantic may have been provided abruptly and at a critical time by this event

interannual variability in the pathways of the north atlantic current over the mid atlantic ridge and the impact of topography abstract recent studies have indicated that the north atlantic ocean subpolar gyre circulation undergoes significant interannual to decadal changes in response to variability in atmospheric forcing there are also observations however suggesting that the southern limb of the subpolar gyre namely the eastward flowing north atlantic current nac may be quasi locked to particular latitudes in the central north atlantic by fracture zones gaps in the mid atlantic ridge this could constrain the current s ability to respond to variability in forcing in the present study subsurface float trajectories at 100 1000 m collected during 1997 99 and satellite derived surface geostrophic velocities from 1992 to 2006 are used to provide an improved description of the detailed pathways of the nac over the ridge and their relationship to bathymetry both the float and satellite observations indicate that in 1997 99 the northern branch of the nac was split into two branches as it crossed the ridge one quasi lock

a climate model with cryodynamics and geodynamics we present a highly simplified zero dimensional model of the climatic system the model attempts to incorporate mechanisms important on the time scale of glaciation cycles namely 104 105 years in particular the radiation balance of the ocean atmosphere the plastic flow of continental ice sheets and the viscous flow of the upper mantle are taken into account the stress is on the interaction between the cryosphere ice sheets and the asthenosphere upper mantle which had not been taken into account in previous energy balance or ice sheet models of climate weertman 1976 kallen et al 1979 the model exhibits free self sustained oscillations of an amplitude and period comparable to those found in the paleoclimatic record of glaciations viz o 10 deg k and o 104 years respectively such oscillations had already been found in the simpler model of kallen et al 1978 1979 the fact that nonlinear self sustained oscillations also obtain for the present slightly more complex model is interesting it offers mild support to the idea that unforced oscillations can actually exist in the real climatic system itself these oscillations are characterized by a quarter phase lag between ice extent and global temperature given that the climatic system is a nonlinear oscillator with a period of o 104 years it is expected that astronomical forcing at 19 000 23 000 and 41 000 years will lead to subharmonic oscillations with a period close to 100 000 years the dominant period of glaciation cycles such effects have already been noticed in the work of birchfield and weertman 1978 with an even simpler model including only glacial dynamics the careful study of the interplay between internal mechanisms and external forcing with comparable time scales represents an interesting challenge to the theory of ice ages the results of such theoretical studies can also provide guidance for observational work in particular periodicities of o 104 years in the climate record and phase lags between ice volume and temperature appear to be supported by the most recent paleogeochemical investigations ruddiman and mclntyre 1981

a simple ice sheet model yields realistic 100 kyr glacial cycles records of global ice volume for the past 700 kyr based on oxygen isotopic data from deep sea cores and reflecting mainly the changing northern hemispheric ice sheets show a dominant cycle of roughly 100 kyr period the records also show smaller amplitude oscillations with spectral peaks at roughly 40 and 20 kyr periods which are well correlated with the milankovich insolation variations due to perturbations in the earth s orbital parameters however no model has accurately simulated the 100 kyr glacial cycle recently birchfield et al 1 and oerlemans2 have obtained encouraging agreement with some features of the glacial cycle by using a simple ice sheet model with a realistic time lag in the response of the bedrock to the ice load this study extends their basic model first by including topography to represent high ground in the north improved results can then be obtained but only with unrealistic parameter values and for some aspects of the record further improvements areobtained by crudely parameterizing possible calving at the equatorward ice sheet tip during deglaciation by proglacial lakes and or marine incursions from the atlantic as emphasized by andrews3 the resulting ice volume curves agree fairly well with the observed records and their power spectra over the past 700 kyr

numerical modeling of subglacial sediment deformation implications for the behavior of the lake michigan lobe laurentide ice sheet we apply a numerical model of the late wisconsin circa 20 000 years b p lake michigan lobe lml laurentide ice sheet to investigate how fine grained subglacial sediment might influence lobe behavior particularly rapid millennial scale marginal oscillations observed in the geologic record over the canadian shield we assume a rigid bed hard bedded basal boundary condition in areas overlain by fine grained sediment soft bedded the base of the ice is coupled to a deformable sediment layer using a rate dependent stress strain law geotechnical tests of clay rich till deposited by the lml provide control for sediment rheologic parameters simulated cross sectional profiles are consistent with reconstructions from geologic evidence time dependent simulations suggest that a soft bedded lobe could have reached steady state in about 20 000 years or less in contrast to 50 000 to 60 000 years for an otherwise identical hard bedded lobe a soft bedded lobe with sediment viscosity at the experimentally determined value is about twice as responsive to millennial scale shifts in accumulation or ablation as a nonsliding hard bedded lobe but in both cases the response is slower than that indicated by the geologic record results suggest that while strong millennial scale changes in accumulation and ablation can produce responses in hard bedded or soft bedded ice that are consistent with the geologic record changes in subglacial sediment viscosity even relatively modest changes whether independent or in conjunction with climate change might more readily account for millennial and submillennial scale fluctuations of the lobe margin these observations do not exclude a role for sliding but they do provide some perspective from which to evaluate relative contributions of the various processes that influence lobe behavior

resolution dependent performance of grounding line motion in a shallow model compared with a full stokes model according to the mismip3d intercomparison making confident statements about the evolution of an ice sheet shelf system with a numerical model requires the capability to reproduce the migration of the grounding line here we show that the shallow ice approximation shallow shelf approximation hybrid type parallel ice sheet model pism with its recent improvements is capable of modeling the grounding line motion in a perturbed ice sheet shelf system the model is set up according to the three dimensional marine ice sheet model intercomparison project mismip3d and simulations are carried out across a broad range of spatial resolutions using 1 a linear interpolation of the grounding line with locally interpolated basal friction and 2 an improved driving stress computation across the grounding line the reversibility of the grounding line i e its retreat after an advance forced by a local perturbation of basal resistance is captured by the model even at medium and low resolutions x 10 km the transient model response is qualitatively similar to that of higher order models but reveals a higher initial sensitivity to perturbations on very short timescales our findings support the application of pism to the antarctic ice sheet from regional up to continental scales and on relatively low spatial resolutions

acceleration of jakobshavn isbrae triggered by warm subsurface ocean waters observations over past decades show a sudden switch of jakobshavn isbrae a large outlet glacier feeding a deep ocean fjord on greenland s west coast from slow thickening to rapid thinning in 1997 this switch is associated with a doubling in glacier velocity hydrographic data show a concurrent sudden increase in subsurface ocean temperatures along the entire west coast of greenland suggesting that the changes in jakobshavn isbrae were triggered by the arrival of relatively warm water originating from the irminger sea observations over the past decades show a rapid acceleration of several outlet glaciers in greenland and antarctica1 one of the largest changes is a sudden switch of jakobshavn isbrae a large outlet glacier feeding a deep ocean fjord on greenland s west coast from slow thickening to rapid thinning2 in 1997 associated with a doubling in glacier velocity3 suggested explanations for the speed up of jakobshavn isbrae include increased lubrication of the ice bedrock interface as more meltwater has drained to the glacier bed during recent warmer summers4 and weakening and break up of the floating ice tongue that buttressed the glacier5 here we present hydrographic data that show a sudden increase in subsurface ocean temperature in 1997 along the entire west coast of greenland suggesting that the changes in jakobshavn isbrae were instead triggered by the arrival of relatively warm water originating from the irminger sea near iceland we trace these oceanic changes back to changes in the atmospheric circulation in the north atlantic region we conclude that the prediction of future rapid dynamic responses of other outlet glaciers to climate change will require an improved understanding of the effect of changes in regional ocean and atmosphere circulation on the delivery of warm subsurface waters to the periphery of the ice sheets

the role of ice stream dynamics in deglaciation since the mid pleistocene transition deglaciation has occurred only after ice sheets have grown large while experiencing several precession and obliquity cycles indicating that large ice sheets are more sensitive to milankovitch forcing than small ice sheets are observations and model simulations suggest that the development of ice streams in the laurentide ice sheet played an as yet unknown role in deglaciations in this study we propose a mechanism by which ice streams may enhance deglaciation and render large ice sheets more sensitive to milankovitch forcing we use an idealized configuration of the parallel ice sheet model that permits the formation of ice streams when the ice sheet is large and ice streams are sufficiently developed an upward shift in equilibrium line altitude commensurate with milankovitch forcing results in rapid deglaciation while the same shift applied to an ice sheet without fully formed ice streams results in continued ice sheet growth or slower deglaciation rapid deglaciation in ice sheets with significant streaming behavior is caused by ice stream acceleration and the attendant enhancement of calving and surface melting at low elevations ice stream acceleration is ultimately the result of steepening of the ice surface and increased driving stresses in ice stream onset zones which come about due to the dependence of surface mass balance on elevation these ice sheet simulations match the broad features of geomorphological observations and add ice stream dynamics that are missing from previous model studies of deglaciation

insolation driven 100 000 year glacial cycles and hysteresis of ice sheet volume comprehensive climate and ice sheet models show that insolation and internal feedbacks between the climate the ice sheets and the lithosphere asthenosphere system explain the 100 000 year period on which the northern hemisphere ice sheets grow and shrink for the past million years earth s climate has been dominated by a 100 000 year cycle of glaciation involving the advance and retreat of the northern hemisphere ice sheets variations in insolation the solar radiation reaching earth s surface caused by constant changes in earth s orbit and orientation to the sun are closely associated with glaciations but the physical mechanisms driving the cycle have remained unclear now ayako abe ouchi and colleagues demonstrate that insolation variations interact with the size of the ice sheets and the solid earth to control the 100 000 year cycles their model shows that internal feedbacks between insolation climate and the elevation of the land beneath the ice sheet allows ice sheets to grow gradually until a maximum size is reached at that point the lowered ice sheet elevation caused by the delayed rebound of the solid earth means that a small increase in insolation can destroy the ice sheet in just a few thousand years the growth and reduction of northern hemisphere ice sheets over the past million years is dominated by an approximately 100 000 year periodicity and a sawtooth pattern1 2 gradual growth and fast termination milankovitch theory proposes that summer insolation at high northern latitudes drives the glacial cycles3 and statistical tests have demonstrated that the glacial cycles are indeed linked to eccentricity obliquity and precession cycles4 5 yet insolation alone cannot explain the strong 100 000 year cycle suggesting that internal climatic feedbacks may also be at work4 5 6 7 earlier conceptual models for example showed that glacial terminations are associated with the build up of northern hemisphere excess ice 5 8 9 10 but the physical mechanisms underpinning the 100 000 year cycle remain unclear here we show using comprehensive climate and ice sheet models that insolation and internal feedbacks between the climate the ice sheets and the lithosphere asthenosphere system explain the 100 000 year periodicity the responses of equilibrium states of ice sheets to summer insolation show hysteresis11 12 13 with the shape and position of the hysteresis loop playing a key part in determining the periodicities of glacial cycles the hysteresis loop of the north american ice sheet is such that after inception of the ice sheet its mass balance remains mostly positive through several precession cycles whose amplitudes decrease towards an eccentricity minimum the larger the ice sheet grows and extends towards lower latitudes the smaller is the insolation required to make the mass balance negative therefore once a large ice sheet is established a moderate increase in insolation is sufficient to trigger a negative mass balance leading to an almost complete retreat of the ice sheet within several thousand years this fast retreat is governed mainly by rapid ablation due to the lowered surface elevation resulting from delayed isostatic rebound14 15 16 which is the lithosphere asthenosphere response carbon dioxide is involved but is not determinative in the evolution of the 100 000 year glacial cycles

ice streaming in the laurentide ice sheet a first comparison between data calibrated numerical model output and geological evidence 1 despite the importance of rapidly flowing ice streams to ice sheet mass balance their incorporation into numerical ice sheet models is a major scientific challenge this introduces large uncertainties in model output and inhibits a more complete understanding of the role of ice streams in overall ice sheet stability recent computational advances have enabled more realistic representations of ice streaming but few studies have attempted to compare model output against known locations of ice streams this paper compares predictions of ice streaming derived from a large ensemble analysis of a glacial systems model of the laurentide ice sheet against independent geological evidence compiled from previously published studies although the precise dating of paleo ice stream locations is problematic our analysis includes comparisons at six different time steps 18 to 10 cal ka bp during deglaciation results indicate that the model is successful in predicting all of the major marine terminating ice streams but there is mixed success in simulating terrestrial ice streams in the right place and at the right time which is vital in guiding future model development the model also reveals that whilst some ice streams persist throughout deglaciation the focus of mass loss associated with ice streaming switches through time with dynamic changes in ice stream catchments and tributaries this implies that major changes in ice stream activity are to be expected in a deglaciating ice sheet with important implications for contemporary ice sheet dynamics

results from the ice sheet model intercomparison project heinrich event intercomparison ismip heino results from the heinrich event intercomparison heino topic of the ice sheet model intercomparison project ismip are presented ismip heino was designed to explore internal large scale ice sheet instabilities in different contemporary ice sheet models these instabilities are of interest because they are a possible cause of heinrich events a simplified geometry experiment reproduces the main characteristics of the laurentide ice sheet including the sedimented region over hudson bay and hudson strait the model experiments include a standard run plus seven variations nine dynamic thermodynamic ice sheet models were investigated one of these models contains a combination of the shallow shelf ssa and shallow ice approximation sia while the remaining eight models are of sia type only seven models including the sia ssa model exhibit oscillatory surges with a period of 1000 years for a broad range of parameters while two models remain in a permanent state of streaming for most parameter settings in a number of models the oscillations disappear for high surface temperatures strong snowfall and small sediment sliding parameters in turn low surface temperatures and low snowfall are favourable for the ice surge cycles we conclude that further improvement of ice sheet models is crucial for adequate robust simulations of cyclic large scale instabilities

variational methods for glacier flow over plastic till we investigate the mechanics of ice streams and glaciers flowing over a bed consisting of coulomb plastic subglacial sediment or more generally of channel flows with coulomb or solid friction laws at the boundary sliding is assumed to occur if shear stress at the glacier bed attains a prescribed locally defined yield stress while no sliding is assumed possible below that yield stress importantly the location of regions of slip and no slip at the bed is not known a priori but forms part of the solution by analogy with friction problems in elasticity we derive a weak formulation as a semi coercive variational inequality which admits a unique solution provided a solvability condition ensuring force balance is satisfied the variational formulation is then exploited to calculate numerical solutions and we investigate the effect of variations in subglacial water pressure ice thickness and surface slope on the discharge of a valley glacier with a plastic bed significant differences are found between the behaviour of wide and narrow as well as steep and shallow angled glaciers and our results further indicate the need to develop models capable of accounting for longitudinal stresses

a conceptual model of the deglaciation of atlantic canada abstract we present a conceptual model for the deglaciation of atlantic canada in which a role is played by ice streams the ice margin lay close to the edge of the continental shelf at the last glacial maximum ice streams occupying shelf troughs comprised 1 a major ice stream in the laurentian channel 2 secondary streams in the bay of fundy gulf of maine trinity trough and notre dame channel and 3 lesser ice streams elsewhere early retreat in the northeast notre dame bay and in the southwest bay of fundy gulf of maine was mainly by calving along embayments by 18 ka radiocarbon years a calving embayment had opened on emerald basin scotian shelf retreat along channels marooned ice on intervening banks a major calving episode beginning just before 14 ka removed ice from the gulf of st lawrence triggering re advances down secondary troughs isolation of a newfoundland ice cap produced radial drainage via fiords and more extensive flow into the st george s bay lowlands on the west coast by 13 ka most ice was on land and was ablating by melting rather than calving shelf ice caps persisted until 11 ka

early pleistocene glacial cycles and the integrated summer insolation forcing long term variations in northern hemisphere summer insolation are generally thought to control glaciation but the intensity of summer insolation is primarily controlled by 20 000 year cycles in the precession of the equinoxes whereas early pleistocene glacial cycles occur at 40 000 year intervals matching the period of changes in earth s obliquity the resolution of this 40 000 year problem is that glaciers are sensitive to insolation integrated over the duration of the summer the integrated summer insolation is primarily controlled by obliquity and not precession because by kepler s second law the duration of the summer is inversely proportional to earth s distance from the sun

basal temperature evolution of north american ice sheets and implications for the 100 kyr cycle 1 we simulate three dimensional ice temperature fields to examine spatial temporal history of the subglacial thermal environment during the last glacial cycle model results suggest that 60 80 of the laurentide ice sheet was cold based frozen to the bed at the lgm and therefore unable to undergo large scale basal flow the fraction of warm based ice increases significantly through the ensuing deglaciation with only 10 20 of the laurentide ice sheet frozen to the bed by 8 kyr bp this basal thermal evolution a function of both climatic and ice sheet history could enable a dynamical switch to widespread basal flow through the deglacial period because basal flow has the capacity to evacuate large amounts of ice from the interior of continental ice sheets creating thin and climatically vulnerable ice masses this switch in flow regime may have played a significant role in glacial terminations and the 100 kyr glacial cycle