ice sheet sources of sea level rise and freshwater discharge during the last deglaciation we review and synthesize the geologic record that constrains the sources of sea level rise and freshwater discharge to the global oceans associated with retreat of ice sheets during the last deglaciation the last glacial maximum 26 19 ka was terminated by a rapid 5 10 m sea level rise at 19 0 19 5 ka sourced largely from northern hemisphere ice sheet retreat in response to high northern latitude insolation forcing sea level rise of 8 20 m from 19 to 14 5 ka can be attributed to continued retreat of the laurentide and eurasian ice sheets with an additional freshwater forcing of uncertain amount delivered by heinrich event 1 the source of the abrupt acceleration in sea level rise at 14 6 ka meltwater pulse 1a 14 15 m includes contributions of 6 5 10 m from northern hemisphere ice sheets of which 2 7 m represents an excess contribution above that derived from ongoing ice sheet retreat widespread retreat of antarctic ice sheets began at 14 0 15 0 ka which together with geophysical modeling of far field sea level records suggests an antarctic contribution to this meltwater pulse as well the cause of the subsequent younger dryas cold event can be attributed to eastward freshwater runoff from the lake agassiz basin to the st lawrence estuary that agrees with existing lake agassiz outlet radiocarbon dates much of the early holocene sea level rise can be explained by laurentide and scandinavian ice sheet retreat with collapse of laurentide ice over hudson bay and drainage of lake agassiz basin runoff at 8 4 8 2 ka to the labrador sea causing the 8 2 ka event

glacial interglacial ice stream stability in the weddell sea embayment antarctica the resilience of the antarctic ice sheet and its effect on global sea level depends on the dynamics of ice streams antarctic ice streams are known to be responsive to changes at the ocean interface and as expected most have thinned in response to ocean warming and sea level rise since the last glacial maximum lgm here we provide direct and unexpected evidence that points toward the glacial interglacial stability of the slessor and recovery glaciers ice streams of the east antarctic ice sheet eais which merge with the west antarctic ice sheet wais to form the filchner ice shelf in the weddell sea embayment cosmogenic nuclide measurements in the shackleton range suggest that the slessor and recovery ice streams were not significantly thicker than today during the lgm we hypothesise that the glaciers did not thicken because the grounding line was not able to migrate seaward beyond the deep thiel crary trough beneath the filchner ice shelf immediately offshore this discovery reveals how a topographic threshold can affect the dynamics of ice streams it also reduces uncertainties on the thickness extent and volume of the antarctic ice sheet in a large but unknown sector of the antarctic ice sheet it constrains the potential sea level rise from antarctica it helps explain observed anomalies in glacio isostatic adjustment above all it suggests that the behaviour of the atlantic facing weddell sea sector of the wais contrasts with that of the pacific facing ross and amundsen sea sectors

fast recession of a west antarctic glacier satellite radar interferometry observations of pine island glacier west antarctica reveal that the glacier hinge line position retreated 1 2 0 3 kilometers per year between 1992 and 1996 which in turn implies that the ice thinned by 3 5 0 9 meters per year the fast recession of pine island glacier predicted to be a possible trigger for the disintegration of the west antarctic ice sheet is attributed to enhanced basal melting of the glacier floating tongue by warm ocean waters

positive mass balance of the ross ice streams west antarctica we have used ice flow velocity measurements from synthetic aperture radar to reassess the mass balance of the ross ice streams west antarctica we find strong evidence for ice sheet growth 26 8 gigatons per year in contrast to earlier estimates indicating a mass deficit 20 9 gigatons per year average thickening is equal to 25 of the accumulation rate with most of this growth occurring on ice stream c whillans ice stream which was thought to have a significantly negative mass balance is close to balance reflecting its continuing slowdown the overall positive mass balance may signal an end to the holocene retreat of these ice streams

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

a pleistocene diatomite from the western piedmont of jebel marra volcano darfur western sudan and its hydrological and climatic significance abstract diatoms collected at 10 cm intervals from a 6 3 m pleistocene lacustrine diatomite section in the now arid piedmont west of jebel marra volcanic caldera darfur western sudan were analyzed the lake probably formed as a result of a rhyolite lava flow damming a former river the lake was initially shallow but in the upper 5 3 m diatom composition and a salinity reconstruction indicate persistent deep freshwater conditions the diatomite is overlain by an acheulian stone tool assemblage with a probable age range of 0 8 0 3 ma the lake may be coeval with the oil palm fossils discovered 90 km to the southwest which are underlain by developed oldowan early acheulian artifacts some in primary context and so of lower middle pleistocene age both the diatomite and the oil palm fossils indicate a much wetter climate than today

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

identifying the causes of sea level change global mean sea level change has increased from a few centimetres per century over recent millennia to a few tens of centimetres per century in recent decades a review of the latest work shows that global mean sea level rise is unlikely to exceed one metre over the twenty first century but regional departures from this global mean could reach several decimetres

timing of the northern prince gustav ice stream retreat and the deglaciation of northern james ross island antarctic peninsula during the last glacial interglacial transition the northern prince gustav ice stream located in prince gustav channel drained the northeastern portion of the antarctic peninsula ice sheet during the last glacial maximum here we present a chronology of its retreat based on in situ produced cosmogenic be 10 from erratic boulders at cape lachman northern james ross island schmidt hammer testing was adopted to assess the weathering state of erratic boulders in order to better interpret excess cosmogenic be 10 from cumulative periods of pre exposure or earlier release from the glacier the weighted mean exposure age of five boulders based on schmidt hammer data is 12 9 1 2 ka representing the beginning of the deglaciation of lower lying areas 60 m a s l of the northern james ross island when northern prince gustav ice stream split from the remaining james ross island ice cover this age represents the minimum age of the transition from grounded ice stream to floating ice shelf in the middle continental shelf areas of the northern prince gustav channel the remaining ice cover located at higher elevations of northern james ross island retreated during the early holocene due to gradual decay of terrestrial ice and increase of equilibrium line altitude schmidt hammer r values are inversely correlated with be 10 exposure ages and could be used as a proxy for exposure history of individual granite boulders in this region and favour the hypothesis of earlier release of boulders with excessive be 10 concentrations from glacier directly at this site these data provide evidences for an earlier deglaciation of northern james ross island when compared with other recently presented cosmogenic nuclide based deglaciation chronologies but this timing coincides with rapid increase of atmospheric temperature in this marginal part of antarctica

interpreting sedimentary growth structures from well log and seismic data with examples growth structures develop when sediments are deposited during tectonic events such as normal and thrust faulting diapirism and subsidence information about sedimentary and tectonic history can be obtained by analyzing the depths to stratigraphic horizons within growth structures either from well log or depth corrected seismic data for example differences in depth between correlatable horizons are determined for two wells dgrd and then plotted versus total depth in the structurally higher well d positive slopes on this graph indicate expanded sedimentary sections negative slopes are condensed sections and curves with no slope are environments free of differential tectonic motion changes in either sedimentation or tectonic conditions create discontinuities o changes in slope thus the growth plots provide strong constraints on any interpretation the plot of dgrd versus d helps to distinguish faults from unconformities in well log data to identify hard to locate sequence boundaries and to locate stratigraphic miscorrelations which appear as outlying points from the curve this method for analyzing sedimentary growth structures can be applied to any tectonic or sedimentary environment and has many applications

the deglacial history of nw alexander island antarctica from surface exposure dating recent changes along the margins of the antarctic peninsula such as the collapse of the wilkins ice shelf have highlighted the effects of climatic warming on the antarctic peninsula ice sheet apis however such changes must be viewed in a long term millennial scale context if we are to understand their significance for future stability of the antarctic ice sheets to address this we present nine new cosmogenic 10be exposure ages from sites on nw alexander island and rothschild island adjacent to the wilkins ice shelf that provide constraints on the timing of thinning of the alexander island ice cap since the last glacial maximum all but one of the 10be ages are in the range 10 2 21 7 ka showing a general trend of progressive ice sheet thinning since at least 22 ka until 10 ka the data also provide a minimum estimate 490 m for ice cap thickness on nw alexander island at the last glacial maximum cosmogenic 3he ages from a rare occurrence of mantle xenoliths on rothschild island yield variable ages up to 46 ka probably reflecting exhumation by periglacial processes

punctuated eustatic sea level rise in the early mid holocene whether eustatic sea level rise through the holocene has been punctuated or continuous has remained controversial for almost two decades resolving this debate has implications for predicting future responses of remaining ice sheets to climate change and also for understanding the drivers of human settlement and dispersal patterns through prehistory here we present a sea level curve for the past 8900 yr from singapore a tectonically stable location remote from ice loading effects we also present critical and unique sedimentation rate organic 13c and foraminiferal 13c proxy records of sea level change derived from a shallow marine sediment core from the same area over the same time interval the sea level curve corroborated by the independent proxy records suggests rapid rise at a rate of 1 8 m 100 yr until 8100 cal calibrated yr b p a near cessation in the rate of sea level rise between 7800 and 7400 cal yr b p followed by a renewed rise of 4 5 m that was complete by 6500 cal yr b p we suggest that this period of relatively stable sea level during the early to mid holocene enabled modern deltas to advance providing a highly productive environment for the establishment of coastal sedentary agriculture periods of rapid sea level rise before and after may have catalyzed significant postglacial episodes of human dispersal in coastal regions

a baseline antarctic gia correction for space gravimetry abstract within the past decade newly collected gps data and geochronological constraints have resulted in refinement of glacial isostatic adjustment gia models for antarctica these are critical to estimating and understanding ice mass changes at present day a correction needs to be made when using space gravity for ice mass balance assessments due to the fact that any vertical movements of the solid earth masquerade as changes in ice mass and these must be carefully removed the main upshot of the new antarctic gia models is a downward revision of negative ice mass trends deduced from the gravity recovery and climate experiment grace resulting from a reduced gia correction this revision places grace inferred trend in mass balance within the one sigma uncertainty of mass balance deduced by altimetry because uncertainties in holocene ice history and the low viscosity rheology beneath the west antarctic ice sheet wais continue to vex further improvement in predictions of present day gia gravity rate more emphasis has been given to regional scale gia models here we use a bayesian method to explore the gravimetric gia trend over antarctica both with and without the impact of a late pleistocene antarctic ice loads along with the contribution of oceanic loads we call this model without loads associated with antarctica a baseline for regional gia models to build upon we consider variations of the radial mantle viscosity profile and the volume of continental scale ice sheets during the last glacial cycle the modeled baseline gia is mainly controlled by the lower mantle viscosity and continental levering caused by ocean loading we find that the predicted baseline gia correction weakly depends on the ice history this correction averages to 28 4 16 5 41 9 95 confidence gt yr of which 23 6 5 3 are contributed by east antarctica in contrast with late pleistocene antarctic proximal ice included the total modeled mass trend due to gia is 73 7 30 1 114 7 gt yr a baseline gia correction of 28 4 gt yr is of order 50 of the mean net mass trend measured during the period 1992 2017 the statistical analysis provides tools for properly synthesizing any regional antarctic gia model with a self consistent far field component this may prove important for accounting for both global and regional 3 d variations in mantle viscosity

glacial retreat in the amundsen sea sector west antarctica first cosmogenic evidence from central pine island bay and the kohler range the amundsen sea embayment of west antarctica hosts one of the most rapidly changing sectors of the west antarctic ice sheet with the fastest flowing ice streams in antarctica the region around pine island bay is characterized by rapid ice sheet thinning and grounding line retreat published surface exposure data are limited to a few isolated nunataks making it difficult to assess the long term deglacial history of the area to address this we correlate existing records of lateral ice stream retreat from marine sediment cores with onshore glacial thinning in two key areas of eastern marie byrd land the kohler range and pine island bay our 10be surface exposure ages are the first from the isolated kohler range and show that the nunataks there became ice free between 8 6 and 12 6 ka this implies a minimum long term average thinning rate of 3 3 0 3 cm yr which is one order of magnitude lower than recent rates based on satellite data we also present pre to early holocene 10be surface exposure ages from two islands located approximately 80 km downstream of the pine island glacier ice shelf front to constrain the lateral deglacial history in the pine island bay area this study provides insight into the significance of local ice sheet variations and suggests that the post lgm history in the amundsen sea sector was characterized by glacial thinning as well as lateral retreat in pre to early holocene times

controls on interior west antarctic ice sheet elevations inferences from geologic constraints and ice sheet modeling abstract knowledge of the west antarctic ice sheet wais response to past sea level and climate forcing is necessary to predict its response to warmer temperatures in the future the timing and extent of past interior wais elevation changes provides insight to wais behavior and constraints for ice sheet models constraints prior to the last glacial maximum lgm however are rare surface exposure ages of glacial erratics near the wais divide at mt waesche in marie byrd land and at the ohio range in the transantarctic mountains range from 10 ka to 500 ka without a dependence on elevation the probability distribution functions pdf of the exposure ages at both locations are remarkably similar during the last glaciation maximum interior ice elevations as recorded by moraines and erratics were reached between 10 ka and 12 ka however most exposure ages are older than the lgm and cluster around 40 ka and 80 ka the peak in the exposure age distributions at 40 ka includes ages of alpine moraine boulders at mercer ridge in the ohio range comparison of the pdf of exposures ages from the ohio range and mt waesche with the temperature record from the fuji dome ice core indicates that the youngest peak in the exposure age distributions corresponds to the abrupt warming during the last glacial termination a prominent peak in the ohio range pdf corresponds to the penultimate termination stage 5e during the intervening glacial period there is not a consistent relationship between the peaks in the pdf at each location and temperature a combined ice sheet ice shelf model with forcing scaled to marine 18 o predicts that interior wais elevations near the ice divide have varied 300 m over the last glacial cycle peaks in the pdf correspond to model highstands over the last 200 ka in the simulated elevation history maximum ice elevations at ohio range 100 m and mt waesche 60 m occur at 10 ka in agreement with observations from these sites during collapse of the marine portion of the wais ice elevations at ohio range and mt waesche are drawn down at least 200 m below the present ice elevation the good correspondence between the model results and observations at both the ohio range and mt waesche supports the conclusion that interior wais highstands do not occur during glacial maximums rather the highstands are controlled primarily by increased accumulation during temperature maximums that occur early in the interglacials interior down draw events follow highstands resulting from the arrival of a wave of thinning triggered by retreat of the wais grounding line coupled with decreasing accumulation rates

changes in the west antarctic ice sheet since 1963 from declassified satellite photography comparison of declassified satellite photography taken in 1963 with more recent satellite imagery reveals that large changes have occurred in the region where an active ice stream enters the ross ice shelf ice stream b has widened by 4 kilometers at a rate much faster than suggested by models and has decreased in speed by 50 percent the ice ridge between ice streams b and c has eroded 14 kilometers these changes along with changes in the crevassing around crary ice rise imply that this region s velocity field shifted during this century

rapid early holocene retreat of a laurentide outlet glacier through an arctic fjord marine terminating outlet glaciers control the stability of ice sheets exposure ages and radiocarbon dates show that an arctic outlet glacier of the laurentide ice sheet rapidly retreated about 9 500 years ago and imply strong feedbacks between bathymetry and ice movement

deglaciation of fennoscandia abstract to provide a new reconstruction of the deglaciation of the fennoscandian ice sheet in the form of calendar year time slices which are particularly useful for ice sheet modelling we have compiled and synthesized published geomorphological data for eskers ice marginal formations lineations marginal meltwater channels striae ice dammed lakes and geochronological data from radiocarbon varve optically stimulated luminescence and cosmogenic nuclide dating this is summarized as a deglaciation map of the fennoscandian ice sheet with isochrons marking every 1000 years between 22 and 13 cal kyr bp and every hundred years between 11 6 and final ice decay after 9 7 cal kyr bp deglaciation patterns vary across the fennoscandian ice sheet domain reflecting differences in climatic and geomorphic settings as well as ice sheet basal thermal conditions and terrestrial versus marine margins for example the ice sheet margin in the high precipitation coastal setting of the western sector responded sensitively to climatic variations leaving a detailed record of prominent moraines and other ice marginal deposits in many fjords and coastal valleys retreat rates across the southern sector differed between slow retreat of the terrestrial margin in western and southern sweden and rapid retreat of the calving ice margin in the baltic basin our reconstruction is consistent with much of the published research however the synthesis of a large amount of existing and new data support refined reconstructions in some areas for example the lgm extent of the ice sheet in northwestern russia was located far east and it occurred at a later time than the rest of the ice sheet at around 17 15 cal kyr bp we also propose a slightly different chronology of moraine formation over southern sweden based on improved correlations of moraine segments using new lidar data and tying the timing of moraine formation to greenland ice core cold stages retreat rates vary by as much as an order of magnitude in different sectors of the ice sheet with the lowest rates on the high elevation and maritime norwegian margin retreat rates compared to the climatic information provided by the greenland ice core record show a general correspondence between retreat rate and climatic forcing although a close match between retreat rate and climate is unlikely because of other controls such as topography and marine versus terrestrial margins overall the time slice reconstructions of fennoscandian ice sheet deglaciation from 22 to 9 7 cal kyr bp provide an important dataset for understanding the contexts that underpin spatial and temporal patterns in retreat of the fennoscandian ice sheet and are an important resource for testing and refining ice sheet models

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

do blue ice moraines in the heritage range show the west antarctic ice sheet survived the last interglacial abstract we present a hypothesis that best explains cosmogenic isotope data on blue ice moraines in the heritage range west antarctica the age of the moraines implies that they and the related ice sheet surface with which they are associated have persisted on the flanks of nunataks throughout at least the last interglacial glacial cycle the implication is that although the west antarctic ice sheet wais may have fluctuated in thickness during glacial cycles the central dome has remained intact for at least 200 kyr and possibly even for 400 kyr such a finding if substantiated would contribute to our understanding of the sensitivity of the wais to climate change further it would be a powerful geomorphic constraint on models of the past behaviour of the ice sheet during glacial cycles and thus those predicting the future of the ice sheet in a warming world

sea level fingerprinting as a direct test for the source of global meltwater pulse ia the ice reservoir that served as the source for the meltwater pulse ia remains enigmatic and controversial we show that each of the melting scenarios that have been proposed for the event produces a distinct variation or fingerprint in the global distribution of meltwater we compare sea level fingerprints associated with various melting scenarios to existing sea level records from barbados and the sunda shelf and conclude that the southern laurentide ice sheet could not have been the sole source of the meltwater pulse whereas a substantial contribution from the antarctic ice sheet is consistent with these records

origin of the first global meltwater pulse following the last glacial maximum well dated sea level records show that the glacioeustatic rise following the last glacial maximum was characterized by two or possibly three brief intervals of rapid sea level rise separating periods with much lower rates these very high rates of sea level rise indicate periods of exceptionally rapid deglaciation of remaining ice sheets the laurentide ice sheet is commonly targeted as the source of the first and largest of the meltwater pulses mwp ia between 14 200 12 200 14c years b p and 13 700 years ago 11 700 14c years b p in all oceanic records of deglaciation of the former northern hemisphere ice sheets that we review only those from the gulf of mexico and the bermuda rise show evidence of low 18o values at the time of mwp ia identifying the southern laurentide ice sheet as a potential source for mwp ia we question this source for mwp ia however because 1 ice sheet models suggest that this sector of the ice sheet contributed only a fraction 10 of the sea level needed for mwp ia 2 melting this sector of the ice sheet at the necessary rate to explain mwp ia is physically implausible and 3 ocean models predict a much stronger thermohaline response to the inferred freshwater pulse out of the mississippi river into the north atlantic than is recorded this leaves the antarctic ice sheet as the only other ice sheet capable of delivering enough sea level to explain mwp ia but there are currently no well dated high resolution records to document this hypothesis these conclusions suggest that reconstructions of the laurentide ice sheet in the ice 4g model which are constrained to match the sea level record may be too low for time periods younger than 15 000 years ago furthermore 18o records from the gulf of mexico show variable fluxes of meltwater from the southern margin of the laurentide ice sheet which can be traced to the opening and closing of eastward draining glacial lake outlets associated with surging ice sheet behavior these variable fluxes through eastern outlets were apparently sufficient to affect formation of north atlantic deep water thus underscoring the sensitivity of this process to changes in freshwater forcing

holocene deglacial history of the northeast antarctic peninsula a review and new chronological constraints the northeast antarctic peninsula neap region is currently showing signs of significant environmental change evidenced by acceleration of glacial retreat and collapse of both larsen a and b ice shelves within the past 15 years however data on the past extent of the eastern margin of the antarctic peninsula ice sheet apis and its holocene retreat history are sparse and hence we cannot yet put the recent changes into a long term context in order to investigate the timing of deglaciation we present 16 new cosmogenic 10be surface exposure ages from sites on northern james ross island cape lachman johnson mesa and terrapin hill and seymour island the majority of the ages cluster around 6e10 ka with three significantly older 25e31 ka we combine these ages with existing terrestrial and marine radiocarbon deglaciation ages and a compilation of existing swath bathymetry data to quantify the temporal and spatial character of the regional glacial history ice had begun to retreat from the outer shelf by 18 3 ka reaching seymour island by w8 ka northern james ross island began to deglaciate around the time of the early holocene climatic optimum c 11e9 5 ka deglaciation continued and a transition from grounded to floating ice in prince gustav channel occurred around 8 ka separating the james ross island ice cap from the apis this occurred shortly before prince gustav channel ice shelf began to disintegrate at 6 2 ka our results suggest there may be a bathymetric control on the spatial pattern of deglaciation in the neap

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

drivers of holocene sea level change in the caribbean abstract we present a holocene relative sea level rsl database for the caribbean region 5 n to 25 n and 55 w to 90 w that consists of 499 sea level index points and 238 limiting dates the database was compiled from multiple sea level indicators mangrove peat microbial mats beach rock and acroporid and massive corals we subdivided the database into 20 regions to investigate the influence of tectonics and glacial isostatic adjustment on rsl we account for the local scale processes of sediment compaction and tidal range change using the stratigraphic position overburden thickness of index points and paleotidal modeling respectively we use a spatio temporal empirical hierarchical model to estimate rsl position and its rates of change in the caribbean over 1 ka time slices because of meltwater input the rates of rsl change were highest during the early holocene with a maximum of 10 9 0 6 m ka in suriname and guyana and minimum of 7 4 0 7 m ka in south florida from 12 to 8 ka following complete deglaciation of the laurentide ice sheet lis by 7 ka mid to late holocene rates slowed to

the melting history of the late pleistocene antarctic ice sheet spatial and temporal variations in the sea levels of the past 20 000 years around the globe place constraints on the melting history of the major late pleistocene ice sheets the antarctic ice sheets provided a significant contribution to the sea level rise at a rate that was approximately synchronous with the melting of the laurentide ice sheet except for the interval 9 000 6 000 years ago when it may have lagged behind minor melting of the antarctic ice sheet continued throughout the holocene

major ice sheet change in the weddell sea sector of west antarctica over the last 5 000 years until recently little was known about the weddell sea sector of the west antarctic ice sheet in the last 10 years a variety of expeditions and numerical modelling experiments have improved knowledge of its glaciology glacial geology and tectonic setting two of the sector s largest ice streams rest on a steep reverse sloping bed yet despite being vulnerable to change satellite observations show contemporary stability there is clear evidence for major ice sheet reconfiguration in the last few thousand years however knowing precisely how the ice sheet has changed in the past and when would allow us to better understand whether it is now at risk two competing hypotheses have been established for this glacial history in one the ice sheet retreated and thinned progressively from its last glacial maximum position retreat stopped at or very near the present position in the late holocene alternatively in the late holocene the ice sheet retreated significantly upstream of the present grounding line and then advanced to the present location due to glacial isostatic adjustment and ice shelf and ice rise buttressing both hypotheses point to data and theory in their support yet neither has been unequivocally tested or falsified here we review geophysical evidence to determine how each hypothesis has been formed where there are inconsistencies in the respective glacial histories how they may be tested or reconciled and what new evidence is required to reach a common model for the late holocene ice sheet history of the weddell sea sector of west antarctica

the sedimentary legacy of a palaeo ice stream on the shelf of the southern bellingshausen sea clues to west antarctic glacial history during the late quaternary a major trough belgica trough eroded by a palaeo ice stream crosses the continental shelf of the southern bellingshausen sea west antarctica and is associated with a trough mouth fan belgica tmf on the adjacent continental slope previous marine geophysical and geological studies investigated the bathymetry and geomorphology of belgica trough and belgica tmf erosional and depositional processes associated with bedform formation and the temporal and spatial changes in clay mineral provenance of subglacial and glaciomarine sediments here we present multi proxy data from sediment cores recovered from the shelf and uppermost slope in the southern bellingshausen sea and reconstruct the ice sheet history since the last glacial maximum lgm in this poorly studied area of west antarctica we combined new data physical properties sedimentary structures geochemical and grain size data with published data shear strength clay mineral assemblages to refine a previous facies classification for the sediments the multi proxy approach allowed us to distinguish four main facies types and to assign them to the following depositional settings 1 subglacial 2 proximal grounding line 3 distal sub ice shelf sub sea ice and 4 seasonal open marine in the seasonal open marine fades we found evidence for episodic current induced winnowing of near seabed sediments on the middle to outer shelf and at the uppermost slope during the late holocene in addition we obtained data on excess pb 210 activity at three core sites and 44 ams c 14 dates from the acid insoluble fraction of organic matter aio and calcareous micro fossils respectively at 12 sites these chronological data enabled us to reconstruct for the first time the timing of the last advance and retreat of the west antarctic ice sheet wais and the antarctic peninsula ice sheet apis in the southern bellingshausen sea we used the down core variability in sediment provenance inferred from clay mineral changes to identify the most reliable aio c 14 ages for ice sheet retreat the palaeo ice stream advanced through belgica trough after similar to 36 0 corrected c 14 ka before present b p it retreated from the outer shelf at similar to 25 5 ka b p the middle shelf at similar to 19 8 ka b p the inner shelf in eltanin bay at similar to 12 3 ka b p and the inner shelf in ronne entrance at similar to 6 3 ka b p the retreat of the wais and apis occurred slowly and stepwise and may still be in progress this dynamical ice sheet behaviour has to be taken into account for the interpretation of recent and the prediction of future mass balance changes in the study area the glacial history of the southern bellingshausen sea is unique when compared to other regions in west antarctica but some open questions regarding its chronology need to be addressed by future work c 2010 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

asynchronous behavior of the antarctic ice sheet and local glaciers during and since termination 1 salmon valley antarctica abstract the stability of the antarctic ice sheet under future warming remains an open question with broad implications for sea level prediction and adaptation in particular knowledge of whether the ice sheet has the capacity for rapid drawdown or collapse or whether it can remain stable during periods of warming is essential for predicting its future behavior here we use 55 radiocarbon dates coupled with geomorphologic mapping to reconstruct the timing of changes in ice extent and elevation during the last ice age termination in salmon valley adjacent to mcmurdo sound in the western ross sea embayment results indicate that a grounded ice sheet in the ross sea embayment achieved its maximum elevation and extent along the headlands of salmon valley at 18 000 yr bp during a period of increasing temperatures and accumulation over the antarctic continent this ice remained at or near its maximum on the headlands near the valley mouth until after 14 000 yr bp removal of grounded ross sea ice from salmon valley was complete shortly after 7900 yr bp indicating that the grounding line had retreated through southern mcmurdo sound by that time we suggest the primary driver of ross sea ice removal from mcmurdo sound was marine based either through basal melting or calving due to sea level rise when combined with regional data the salmon valley record suggests that this sector of the antarctic ice sheet did not contribute in a significant way to deglacial meltwater pulses such as meltwater pulse 1a in contrast to the ross sea ice our work also shows that local independent alpine glaciers in salmon valley have advanced through the holocene land terminating glaciers such as these elsewhere in the region show a similar pattern and may reflect the continued influence of increased accumulation following the termination of the last ice age

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

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

final laurentide ice sheet deglaciation and holocene climate sea level change abstract despite elevated summer insolation forcing during the early holocene global ice sheets retained nearly half of their volume from the last glacial maximum as indicated by deglacial records of global mean sea level gmsl partitioning the gmsl rise among potential sources requires accurate dating of ice sheet extent to estimate ice sheet volume here we date the final retreat of the laurentide ice sheet with 10 be surface exposure ages for the labrador dome the largest of the remnant laurentide ice domes during the holocene we show that the labrador dome deposited moraines during north atlantic cold events at 10 3 ka 9 3 ka and 8 2 ka suggesting that these regional climate events helped stabilize the retreating labrador dome in the early holocene after hudson bay became seasonally ice free at 8 2 ka the majority of laurentide ice sheet melted abruptly within a few centuries we demonstrate through high resolution regional climate model simulations that the thermal properties of a seasonally ice free hudson bay would have increased laurentide ice sheet ablation and thus contributed to the subsequent rapid labrador dome retreat finally our new 10 be chronology indicates full laurentide ice sheet had completely deglaciated by 6 7 0 4 ka which re quires that antarctic ice sheets contributed 3 6 6 5 m to gmsl rise since 6 3 7 1 ka

distribution of glacial geomorphic features on the antarctic continental shelf and correlation with substrate implications for ice behavior surveys were conducted seaward of all the major drainage outlets of the antarctic ice sheet from the pennell coast north victoria land to marguerite bay antarctic peninsula the results show that the ice sheet extended onto the outer shelf glacial troughs occur offshore of all major glacial outlets where the substrate is crystalline bedrock ice flow tended to follow the structural grain of the bedrock deposited little sediment and eroded the underlying bedrock where ice flowed over relatively soft more easily eroded sedimentary strata the direction of ice flow was more directly offshore and depositional features characterize the sea floor in these areas the signature of the grounded ice consists of till deposits and large scale geomorphic features drumlins occur within the region of contact between crystalline and sedimentary substrates the different geological substrates are interpreted to have exerted a fundamental control on the behavior of past ice sheets the troughs in the areas of bedrock composed of sedimentary substrate are interpreted to have been occupied by relatively fast flowing ice ice streams and the troughs in the areas of crystalline substrate are interpreted to have been occupied by slower moving ice the area between these two zones was characterized by ice acceleration and is marked by drumlins

rapid deglaciation of marguerite bay western antarctic peninsula in the early holocene glacial geological evidence of rapid ice stream retreat is important for the potential insight it can bring to understanding of contemporary rapid ice sheet change here we report new chronological constraints on the deglacial history of the marguerite trough ice stream which formerly drained part of the western margin of the antarctic peninsula this ice stream has been previously identified on geomorphological grounds as an example of an outlet that underwent rapid retreat following the last glacial maximum but the precise timing of this retreat has not been conclusively determined we obtained cosmogenic surface exposure dates on erratic boulders that record the thinning history of ice flowing into the ice stream these dates show that the ice stream underwent 270 m of thinning very rapidly at 9 6 ka bp the timing of ice stream thinning agrees closely with previously published data on ice shelf retreat the age of the first post glacial beaches and minimum constraining ages for the onset of lacustrine sedimentation and post glacial sedimentation in inner shelf fjords we compare the timing of retreat to the similarly sized anvers trough ice stream further north and find that retreat in marguerite bay was more rapid and earlier than in the anvers trough we argue that the intrusion of circumpolar deep water is the most likely forcing mechanism for retreat in marguerite bay a key finding of this study is that rapid retreat occurred in deep water with reverse continent dipping slope but also in relatively shallow water with a positive slope this may have implications for understanding of oceanographically forced ice sheet change in other parts of west antarctica

exploring biological constraints on the glacial history of antarctica the evolutionary and biogeographic history of the contemporary antarctic terrestrial and marine biotas reveals many components of ancient origin for large elements of the terrestrial biota long term isolation over timescales from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of years and thus persistence through multiple glacial cycles now appears to be the norm rather than the exception for the marine biota there are some parallels with benthic communities also including ancient components together with an incidence of species level endemism indicating long term isolation on the antarctic continental shelf although it has long been known that a few ice free terrestrial locations have existed in antarctica for up to 10 12 million years particularly in the dry valleys of victoria land along with certain nunataks and higher regions of large mountain ranges these do not provide potential refugia for the majority of terrestrial biota which occur mainly in coastal and or low lying locations and exhibit considerable biogeographic regionalisation within the continent current glacial models and reconstructions do not have the spatial resolution to detect unequivocally either the number or geographical distribution of these glacial refugia or areas of the continental shelf that have remained periodically free from ice scouring but do provide limits for their maximum spatial extent recent work on the evolution of the terrestrial biota indicates that refugia were much more widespread than has been recognised and it is now clear that terrestrial biology provides novel constraints for reconstructing the past glacial history of antarctica and new marine biological investigations of the antarctic shelf are starting to do likewise

paired bedrock and boulder 10be concentrations resulting from early holocene ice retreat near jakobshavn isfjord western greenland we measured in situ cosmogenic 10 be in 16 bedrock and 14 boulder samples collected along a 40 km transect outside of and normal to the modern ice margin near sikuijuitsoq fjord in central west

analysis of multiple cosmogenic nuclides constrains laurentide ice sheet history and process on mt mansfield vermont s highest peak abstract constraining glacial history and process on mt mansfield the highest peak in vermont 1339 m a s l provides insight into how the laurentide ice sheet shaped the underlying landscape when latest pleistocene ice retreated and how upland and lowland glacial histories relate here we quantify in situ cosmogenic 10be in 20 bedrock and boulder surfaces as well as in situ cosmogenic 14c in three of those surfaces to assess subglacial erosion and exposure history isotopic concentrations indicate that mt mansfield s lower elevations 400 1200 m a s l were deeply eroded by at least several meters during the last glaciation and then deglaciated rapidly 10be ages across this elevation span are indistinguishable and average 13 9 0 6 ka n 15 suggesting that 800 m of ice thinning occurred within at most about a millennium conversely the higher elevations 1200 m a s l preserve a more complex geomorphic history mt mansfield s summit surfaces contain 10be from previous periods of exposure indicating that the mountaintop landscapes were likely preserved beneath cold based weakly erosive glacial ice exposure ages from the shorter lived isotope 14c are younger 9 7 and 11 7 ka suggesting that mt mansfield s summit was covered until the early holocene perhaps by snowfields ice carapaces and or till our findings in context of previous work suggest that thinning laurentide ice flowed through the valleys for at most hundreds of years following deglaciation of the uplands but that the summit remained shielded by ice or sediment for millennia after the valleys became ice free

stability of the west antarctic ice sheet in a warming world equivalent to 0 28 to 0 56 mm yr 1 sea level rise with the rate growing over at least the past two decades 1 4 these observations intensify concerns about the ice sheet s stability that were first raised more than four decades ago 5

deglaciation of pope glacier implies widespread early holocene ice sheet thinning in the amundsen sea sector of antarctica abstract the amundsen sea sector of the antarctic ice sheet presently dominates the contribution from antarctica to sea level rise several large ice streams that currently drain the sector have experienced rapid flow acceleration grounding line retreat and thinning during the past few decades however little is known of their longer term millennial scale retreat history despite the reliance of several ice sheet and glacial isostatic adjustment models on such data for improving sea level prediction from this critical region this study investigates the timing and extent of surface lowering of one of those ice streams pope glacier since the last glacial maximum lgm using glacial geological evidence for former ice cover we present a new deglacial chronology for the glacier derived from surface exposure dating of glacially deposited cobbles and ice scoured bedrock from mount murphy and its surrounding peaks cosmogenic 10be exposure ages from 44 erratic cobbles and 5 bedrock samples and in situ 14c exposure ages from one erratic and 8 bedrock samples are predominantly in the range 5 5 16 ka although 10be inheritance from prior exposure is prevalent in some erratics and probably all bedrock samples none of the ages pre date the lgm from these results we infer that the surface of pope glacier lowered by 560 m during the early to mid holocene 9 6 ka at an average rate of 0 13 0 09 0 04 m yr 1 the lowering coincided with a period of enhanced upwelling of warm circumpolar deep water onto the continental shelf in the region a reduction in buttressing facilitated by such upwelling by an ice shelf that is thought to have spanned the embayment until 10 6 cal kyr bp could have triggered simultaneous early holocene thinning of pope glacier and glaciers elsewhere in the amundsen sea embayment

history of the grounded ice sheet in the ross sea sector of antarctica during the last glacial maximum and the last termination knowledge of variations in the extent and thickness of the antarctic ice sheet is key for understanding the behaviour of southern hemisphere glaciers during the last ice age and for addressing issues involving global sea level ocean circulation and climate change insight into past ice sheet behaviour also will aid predictions of future ice sheet stability here we review ter restrial evidence for changes in ice geometry that occurred in the ross sea sector of antarctica at the last glacial maximum lgm and during subsequent deglaciation during the lgm a thick grounded ice sheet extended close to the continental shelf edge in the ross embayment this ice reached surface elevations of more than 1000 m along the coast of the central and southern trans antarctic mountains and marie byrd land the local lgm occurred by 18 ka on the coast but as late as 7 10 ka inland the first significant thinning took place at roughly 13 ka with most ice loss happening in the holocene this history makes it unlikely that the ross sea sector was a major contributor to meltwater pulse 1a mwp 1a resolution of a possible antarctic origin for mwp 1a awaits detailed reconstructions from all sectors of the ice sheet the antarctic ice sheet contains the world s larg est reservoir of fresh water and is a major control on southern hemisphere climate a history of changes in ice sheet extent and thickness is vital for answering questions involving the initiation of southern hemisphere glaciation and deglaciation

past rates of accumulation in central west antarctica 1 the spatial variation in ice accumulation is critical to the form and stability of ice sheets in west antarctica knowledge of present ice accumulation rates is restricted to sparse measurements and interpolations across data free regions while information on former ice accumulation is restricted to a small number of ice cores and numerical modeling results here isochronous internal ice sheet layers recorded by airborne radio echo sounding and dated at their stratigraphic position at the byrd ice core site are used to reconstruct the spatial pattern of accumulation across the main west antarctic ice divide for the past 16 000 years mean accumulation calculated for the last 3100 years matches well to present day accumulation rates which is compatible with previous observations on siple dome accumulation between 6400 and 16 000 years ago is calculated to be around half that at present in accordance with recent ice sheet modeling results index terms 1223 geodesy and gravity ocean earth atmosphere interactions 3339 1827 hydrology glaciology 1863 9310 information related to geographic region antarctica 9604 information related to geologic time cenozoic 3349 meteorology and atmospheric dynamics polar meteorology citation siegert m j and a j payne 2004 past rates of accumulation in central west antarctica geophys res lett 31 l12403 doi 10 1029 2004gl020290

retreat history of the east antarctic ice sheet since the last glacial maximum the east antarctic ice sheet eais is the largest continental ice mass on earth and documenting its evolution since the last glacial maximum lgm is important for understanding its present day and future behaviour as part of a community effort we review geological evidence from east antarctica that constrains the ice sheet history throughout this period 30 000 years ago to present this includes terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dates from previously glaciated regions 14c chronologies from glacial and post glacial deposits onshore and on the continental shelf and ice sheet thickness changes inferred from ice cores and continental scale ice sheet models we also include new 14c dates from the george v land terre adelie coast shelf we show that the eais advanced to the continental shelf margin in some parts of east antarctica and that the ice sheet characteristically thickened by 300 400 m near the present day coastline at these sites this advance was associated with the formation of low gradient ice streams that grounded at depths of 1 km below sea level on the inner continental shelf the lambert amery system thickened by a greater amount 800 m near its present day grounding zone but did not advance beyond the inner continental shelf at other sites in coastal east antarctica e g bunger hills larsemann hills very little change in the ice sheet margin occurred at the lgm perhaps because ice streams accommodated any excess ice build up leaving adjacent ice free areas relatively unaffected evidence from nunataks indicates that the amount of ice sheet thickening diminished inland at the lgm an observation supported by ice cores which suggest that interior ice sheet domes were 100 m lower than present at this time ice sheet recession may have started 18 000 years ago in the lambert amery glacial system and by 14 000 years ago in mac robertson land these early pulses of deglaciation may have been responses to abrupt sea level rise events such as meltwater pulse 1a destabilising the margins of the ice sheet it is unlikely however that east antarctica contributed more than 1 m of eustatic sea level equivalent to post glacial meltwater pulses the majority of ice sheet recession occurred after meltwater pulse 1a between 12 000 and 6000 years ago during a period when the adjacent ocean warmed significantly large tracts of east antarctica remain poorly studied and further work is required to develop a robust understanding of the lgm ice sheet expansion and its subsequent contraction further work will also allow the contribution of the eais to post glacial sea level rise and present day estimates of glacio isostatic adjustment to be refined

a 2 million year glacial chronology of the hatherton glacier antarctica and implications for the size of the east antarctic ice sheet at the last glacial maximum abstract a series of distinct glacial deposits flanking the margins of the upper hatherton glacier an outlet glacier in the central transantarctic mountains are used to constrain the behaviour of the antarctic ice sheets cosmogenic exposure ages of 18 erratics from four glacial drifts covering the ice free dubris and bibra valleys range in age from 5 to 1997 ka our results document four glacial advance and retreat events superimposed on an overall long term ice thickness reduction of about 500 m since the mid pleistocene the lack of field evidence and absence of lgm exposure ages in the glacial deposits of the hatherton glacier supports our conclusion that at the lgm the east antarctic ice sheet was of similar size or may have been slightly smaller than present minimum exposure ages from the oldest two glacial events represented by the isca and danum drifts are 1 2 ma and 0 5 ma respectively the britannia ii drift previously assumed to mark the maximum extent of the last glacial maximum advance has a mean 10 be age of 126 3 2 ka n 5 ages from the younger britannia i drift suggest that since the mid holocene 6 5 1 2 ka n 5 approximately 200 m of additional ice has been lost

the last deglacial history of lutzow holm bay east antarctica past fluctuations of the antarctic ice sheet are poorly understood because of a lack of datable materials radiocarbon reservoir ages and severe environments direct evidence of the timing of ice retreat is important in order to understand the antarctic contribution to global sea level rise since the last glacial maximum here we report the first exposure ages constraining the timing of the last deglaciation from lutzow holm bay east antarctica our data suggest that the final retreat of the ice sheet in the region occurred rapidly in the early holocene and the reduction of the ice thickness in the region was at least 350 m this occurred after the major northern hemisphere deglaciation copyright 2011 john wiley sons ltd

devising quality assurance procedures for assessment of legacy geochronological data relating to deglaciation of the last british irish ice sheet this contribution documents the process of assessing the quality of data within a compilation of legacy geochronological data relating to the last british irish ice sheet a task undertaken as part of a larger community based project britice chrono that aims to improve understanding of the ice sheet s deglacial evolution as accurate reconstructions depend on the quality of the available data some form of assessment is needed of the reliability and suitability of each given age s in our dataset we outline the background considerations that informed the quality assurance procedures devised given our specific research question we describe criteria that have been used to make an objective assessment of the likelihood that an age is influenced by the technique specific sources of geological uncertainty when these criteria were applied to an existing database of all geochronological data relating to the last british irish ice sheet they resulted in a significant reduction in data considered suitable for synthesis the assessed data set was used to test a bayesian approach to age modelling ice stream retreat and we outline our procedure that allows us to minimise the influence of potentially erroneous data and maximise the accuracy of the resultant age models

response of the east antarctica ice sheet to sea level rise a nonsteady ice flow model that explicitly includes longitudinal stresses is used to study the effects of marginal changes on the interior portions of an ice sheet sea level rise is found to cause a wave of thinning to propagate upglacier and this wave is slowed diffused and damped at the ice divide at dome c in central east antarctica post wisconsinan sea level rise is modeled as having caused 110 m thinning with response now 70 complete if accumulation rates increased by 10 at the same time then calculated net thinning has been only 75 m ice sheet response to changes in sea level and accumulation rate is relatively rapid response to temperature changes is an order of magnitude slower response times are shorter if the marginal position of an ice sheet is controlled

an ice sheet remembers are we witnessing the early stages of the collapse of the west antarctic ice sheet in his perspective ackert explains that to answer this question we must study the behavior of the ice sheet not just in recent decades but over thousands of years he highlights the report by stone et al who document slow but steady thinning of the ice sheet over the last 9300 years punctuated by more rapid thinning as the ice margin approaches the record is consistent with earlier suggestions that the ice sheet is still responding to changes in climate and sea level that occurred thousands of years ago making it difficult to predict its response to present climate warming

ice sheet grounding line dynamics steady states stability and hysteresis 1 the ice sheet ice shelf transition zone plays an important role in controlling marine ice sheet dynamics as it determines the rate at which ice flows out of the grounded part of the ice sheet together with accumulation this outflow is the main control on the mass balance of the grounded sheet in this paper we verify the results of a boundary layer theory for ice flux in the transition zone against numerical solutions that are able to resolve the transition zone very close agreement is obtained and grid refinement in the transition zone is identified as a critical component in obtaining reliable numerical results the boundary layer theory confirms that ice flux through the grounding line in a two dimensional sheet shelf system increases sharply with ice thickness at the grounding line this result is then applied to the large scale dynamics of a marine ice sheet our principal results are that 1 marine ice sheets do not exhibit neutral equilibrium but have well defined discrete equilibrium profiles 2 steady grounding lines cannot be stable on reverse bed slopes and 3 marine ice sheets with overdeepened beds can undergo hysteresis under variations in sea level accumulation rate basal slipperiness and ice viscosity this hysteretic behavior can in principle explain the retreat of the west antarctic ice sheet following the last glacial maximum and may play a role in the dynamics of heinrich events

dynamics of the last glacial maximum antarctic ice sheet and its response to ocean forcing retreat of the last glacial maximum lgm antarctic ice sheet is thought to have been initiated by changes in ocean heat and eustatic sea level propagated from the northern hemisphere nh as northern ice sheets melted under rising atmospheric temperatures the extent to which spatial variability in ice dynamics may have modulated the resultant pattern and timing of decay of the antarctic ice sheet has so far received little attention however despite the growing recognition that dynamic effects account for a sizeable proportion of mass balance changes observed in modern ice sheets here we use a 5 km resolution whole continent numerical ice sheet model to assess whether differences in the mechanisms governing ice sheet flow could account for discrepancies between geochronological studies in different parts of the continent we first simulate the geometry and flow characteristics of an equilibrium lgm ice sheet using pan antarctic terrestrial and marine geological data for constraint then perturb the system with sea level and ocean heat flux increases to investigate ice sheet vulnerability our results identify that fast flowing glaciers in the eastern weddell sea the amundsen sea central ross sea and in the amery trough respond most rapidly to ocean forcings in agreement with empirical data most significantly we find that although ocean warming and sea level rise bring about mainly localized glacier acceleration concomitant drawdown of ice from neighboring areas leads to widespread thinning of entire glacier catchments a discovery that has important ramifications for the dynamic changes presently being observed in modern ice sheets

sea level in roman time in the central mediterranean and implications for recent change instrumental records indicate that ocean volumes during the 20th century have increased so as to raise eustatic sea level by f1 2 mm year and the few available records suggest that this is higher than for the previous century geological data indicate that ocean volumes have increased since the main phase of deglaciation about 7000 years ago but whether this continued into the recent past remains unclear yet this is important for establishing whether the recent rise is associated with global warming or is part of a longer duration non anthropogenic signal here we present results for sea level change in the central mediterranean basin for the roman period using new archaeological evidence these data provide a precise measure of local sea level of 1 35f0 07 m at 2000 years ago part of this change is the result of ongoing glacio hydro isostatic adjustment of the crust subsequent to the last deglaciation when corrected for this using geologically constrained model predictions the change in eustatic sea level since the roman period is 0 13f0 09 m a comparison with tide gauge records from nearby locations and with geologically constrained model predictions of the glacio isostatic contributions establishes that the onset of modern sea level rise occurred in recent time at f100f53 years before present d 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

reconciling marine and terrestrial evidence for post lgm ice sheet retreat in southern mcmurdo sound antarctica abstract retreat of the antarctic ice sheets since the last glacial maximum lgm contributed to sea level rise but the location amount and timing of ice mass loss has been controversial this paper presents new 10 be exposure ages from glacially transported erratics which record post lgm retreat of grounded ice in the western ross sea ice elevation in southern mcmurdo sound was 520 m above present day sea level on the eastern side of mount discovery during the lgm and the onset of major deglaciation in the region was after 14 ka the ice surface lowered from 520 to 234 m above present day sea level between 14 0 ka and 10 3 ka and from 234 m to 30 m between 10 3 ka and 7 4 ka this late glacial and holocene deglaciation chronology from southern mcmurdo sound is consistent with other records on the margins of the ross embayment and implies that the western margins of the ross sea ice sheet rsis experienced most mass loss during the early to middle holocene these 10 be exposure ages coupled with sediment provenance define a two stage ice flow scenario for mcmurdo sound subdividing differing reconstructions into an early and late phase prior to termination i an expanded koettlitz glacier flowed north and northeast between brown peninsula and mount discovery and coalesced with northward flowing ice fed from the skelton and mulock glaciers thinning and retreat of the koettlitz glacier and perhaps other outlet glaciers flowing through the royal society range allowed ice grounded in the ross sea to flow westward and northward north of brown peninsula grounding line recession in the ross sea during the late glacial and holocene was likely driven by southern ocean warming and sea level rise from the retreat of the northern hemisphere ice sheets and the outer margins of the antarctic ice sheets

measurements of past ice sheet elevations in interior west antarctica a lateral moraine band on mount waesche a volcanic nunatak in marie byrd land provides estimates of past ice sheet surface elevations in west antarctica helium 3 and chlorine 36 surface exposure ages indicate that the proximal part of the moraine up to 45 meters above the present ice surface was deposited about 10 000 years ago substantially later than the maximum ice extent in the ross embayment the upper distal part of the moraine may record multiple earlier ice sheet high stands a nonequilibrium ice sheet model predicts a delay of several thousand years in maximum ice levels at mount waesche relative to the maximum ice extent in the ross sea the glacial geologic evidence coupled with the ice sheet model indicates that the contribution of the ross sea sector of the west antarctic ice sheet to holocene sea level rise was only about 3 meters these results eliminate west antarctic ice as the principle source of the large meltwater pulse during the early holocene

sea level changes since the last glacial maximum an appraisal of the ipcc fourth assessment report the ipcc fourth assessment report ar4 stated that global sea level rose by about 120 m between the last glacial maximum lgm and 3 2 ka and did not rise again until the late 19th century a review of relevant literature demonstrates that the rise may have been larger by 10 15 m that the timing of stabilisation is poorly constrained within the last 7 ka bp and that the onset of modern rates of sea level rise is not synchronous and uniform across the globe the lgm lowstand as defined in the ar4 is based on the classic barbados sea level history but the sea level curve from this island may not be an accurate eustatic approximation if glacial isostatic adjustment gia processes were significant as suggested by various authors the barbados sea level curve revealed the existence of meltwater pulse mwp 1a at around 14 000 cal a bp questions about the source and causal mechanism of mwp 1a are still being explored by field scientists and gia modellers these problems have direct relevance for contemporary measurements of ice mass changes because space geodetic measurements rely on information provided by gia models to separate land motion from ice mass changes global patterns of holocene sea level change are controlled by regional sea level variability not only through isostatic and tectonic processes but also through steric effects longer wavelength gravitational changes produced by changing ice ocean mass flux and hemispheric scale perturbations in the earth s rotation eustasy is therefore merely a concept not a measurable quantity constraining the late holocene ice melt contribution to global sea level rise and determining regional sea level rise patterns in the 18th and 19th centuries are important future tasks for sea level scientists these will establish the baseline contributions to 20th and 21st century sea level rise and will help to determine the causes of modern rates of sea level rise constraining historical sea level accelerations and short term ice mass flux will aid models of ice sheet dynamics and help to reduce current uncertainties in future sea level predictions the ar4 shows that regional sea level variability is clearly present in sea level change patterns for the past 50 a and an important challenge for the next ipcc assessment is to incorporate this variability into regional future sea level rise scenarios copyright 2009 john wiley sons ltd

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

did changes in antarctic ice volume influence late holocene sea level lowering abstract there has been great debate over the last few decades on the magnitude and causes of relative sea level lowering during the late holocene the principal attributed causes are geodynamic rather than glacio eustatic an alternative partial cause is an increase in antarctic ice volume glaciological and glacial geological field evidence indicates that during the late holocene the antarctic alpine glaciers ice sheet margins and outlet glaciers have expanded and the ice sheet interior has thickened this is attributed to i an ice thickening in central east antarctica throughout the holocene which was caused by the 50 higher holocene snow accumulation rates than those during the glacial stage coupled with the slow reaction time for ice sheet velocities to respond to the increased accumulation and temperature and ii increased ice volume supplied by higher than mean holocene accumulation rates associated with a warmer climatic period between 4000 to 2500 years b p it is estimated that these effects could account for 1 0 0 2 m of the interpreted sea level lowering on mid oceanic islands with 0 7 0 1 m of lowering occurring between 4000 and 2500 years b p

ross sea mylonites and the timing of intracontinental extension within the west antarctic rift system there are few direct constraints on the timing and style of faulting in the ross sea sector of the west antarctic rift system although cretaceous plate reconstructions indicate that ross sea extension between east and west antarctica occurred prior to breakup of the gondwana margin ca 80 ma mylonitic gneisses dredged from the eastern ross sea indicate shear zone deformation considerably earlier at 98 95 ma strain analysis of fab rics indicates 85 100 extension overprinting brittle structures record translation of shear zone gneisses into the upper crust samples yield sensitive high resolution ion microprobe u pb zircon ages of 102 97 ma correlated to byrd coast granite onshore and concordant 40 ar 39 ar biotite and k feldspar ages of 98 95 ma indicating that granites were mylonitized soon after emplacement and cooled rapidly apatite fission track data corroborate this rapid cooling event and reveal a second rapid cooling event ca 80 ma evidence for contemporaneous deformation and a similar thermal evolution at deep sea drilling project site 270 on the ross sea central high and for a migmatite dome on land attests to the regional extent of intracontinental extension extension occurred at a time of complex microplate interactions along the cretaceous active gondwana margin sug gesting that distributed deformation in the overriding antarctic plate may be related to plate boundary dynamics

timing of the last glacial maximum from observed sea level minima during the last glacial maximum ice sheets covered large areas in northern latitudes and global temperatures were significantly lower than today but few direct estimates exist of the volume of the ice sheets or the timing and rates of change during their advance and retreat here we analyze four distinct sediment facies in the shallow tectonically stable bonaparte gulf australia each of which is characteristic of a distinct range in sea level to estimate the maximum volume of land based ice during the last glaciation and the timing of the initial melting phase we use faunal assemblages and preservation status of the sediments to distinguish open marine shallow marine marginal marine and brackish conditions and estimate the timing and the mass of the ice sheets using radiocarbon dating and glacio hydroisostatic modelling our results indicate that from at least 22 000 to 19 000 calendar years before present land based ice volume was at its maximum exceeding today s grounded ice sheets by 52 5 x 10 exp 6 cu km a rapid decrease in ice volume by about 10 percent within a few hundred years terminated the last glacial maximum at 19 000 250 years

cosmogenic 10 be dating of raised shorelines constrains the timing of lake levels in the eastern lake agassiz ojibway basin

holocene sea level database for the atlantic coast of the united states we have constructed a database of holocene relative sea level rsl observations for the atlantic coast of the united states the database contains 492 index points which locate the position of rsl in time and space and 344 limiting dates which constrain the minimum or maximum limit of former sea level the majority of the index points in the database are from 6 ka bp to present with only 7 older than 6 ka bp spatially index points are distributed between maine and south carolina but there is an absence of data from georgia and the atlantic coast of florida the database is sub divided into 16 regions based on the distance from the former laurentide ice sheet and are classified depending upon their susceptibility to compaction the index points and limiting data demonstrate that rsl did not exceed present 0 m during the holocene except potentially in regions 1 and 2 eastern maine and southern maine rates of rsl change were highest during the early holocene and have decreased over time due to the diminishing response of the earth s mantle to glacial isostatic adjustment and reduction of ice equivalent meltwater input along the atlantic coast of the united states the linear rate of rsl rise prior to 4 ka bp ranged from 0 5 to 4 5 mm a 1 compared to 0 6 1 8 mm a 1 from 4 ka bp to ad 1900 the database suggests minimal 0 3 mm yr changes in these rates of rsl rise during the late holocene deglaciation of the laurentide ice sheet caused the spatial variability captured by the database the maximum rate of late holocene and ongoing rsl rise occurred in mid atlantic regions new jersey and inner delaware because of collapse of the peripheral forebulge

postglacial sea level change on a rotating earth first results from a gravitationally self consistent sea level equation we present and solve a gravitationally self consistent sea level equation which governs postglacial sea level variations on a spherically symmetric self gravitating viscoelastic and rotating earth we find that the inclusion of a glacio isostatically induced rotational excitation can significantly affect previous predictions of both present day sea level rates and postglacial sea level histories which were based on a theory that assumed a non rotating earth model to illustrate we consider present day sea level rates and tide gauge corrections along the us east coast and relative sea level curves in the far field of the late pleistocene ice sheets

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

a 10be production rate calibration for the arctic we present a baffin bay 10 be production rate calibration derived from glacial deposits in western greenland and baffin island and test our results against published 10 be calibration datasets to develop an arctic 10 be production rate our calibration comprises i 10 be measurements from moraine boulders linked to a 14 c dated moraine at jakobshavn isfjord in western greenland ii an independent and previously published 10 be production rate at jakobshavn isfjord and iii re measured 10 be concentrations from a baffin island calibration site that is included in the north eastern north america dataset combined we calculate a sea level high latitude 10 be production rate for the baffin bay region of 3 96 0 07 atoms g 1 a 1 lal stone scaling model after testing the baffin bay rate against calibration sites in norway and north eastern north america we calculate a more conservative arctic production rate of 3 96 0 15 atoms g 1 a 1 the baffin bay and arctic 10 be production rates are indistinguishable from the north eastern north america 10 be production rate 3 91 0 19 atoms g 1 a 1 and yield overall uncertainties of 2 3 7 1s these production rates reduce systematic uncertainties in 10 be based chronologies of ice margin change and allow 10 be based chronologies to be more confidently compared with high resolution climate records such as those from greenland ice cores copyright 2013 john wiley sons ltd

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

east antarctic deglaciation and the link to global cooling during the quaternary evidence from glacial geomorphology and 10be surface exposure dating of the sor rondane mountains dronning maud land abstract reconstructing past variability of the antarctic ice sheets is essential to understand their stability and to anticipate their contribution to sea level change as a result of future climate change recent studies have reported a significant decrease in thickness of the east antarctic ice sheet eais during the last several million years however the geographical extent of this decrease and subsequent isostatic rebound remain uncertain in this study we reconstruct the magnitude and timing of ice sheet retreat at the sor rondane mountains in dronning maud land east antarctica based on detailed geomorphological survey cosmogenic exposure dating and glacial isostatic adjustment modeling three distinct deglaciation phases are identified for this sector during the quaternary based on rock weathering and 10 be surface exposure data we estimate that the ice sheet thinned by at least 500 m during the pleistocene this thinning is attributed to the reorganization of southern ocean circulation associated with global cooling into the pleistocene which reduced the transport of moisture from the southern ocean to the interior of eais the data also show that since the last glacial maximum the ice surface has lowered less than ca 50 m and that this lowering probably started after ca 14 ka this suggests that the eais in dronning maud land is unlikely to have been a major contributor to postglacial sea level rise and meltwater pulse 1a

pleistocene collapse of the west antarctic ice sheet some glacial sediment samples recovered from beneath the west antarctic ice sheet at ice stream b contain quaternary diatoms and up to 108 atoms of beryllium 10 per gram other samples contain no quaternary diatoms and only background levels of beryllium 10 less than 10 6 atoms per gram the occurrence of young diatoms and high concentrations of beryllium 10 beneath grounded ice indicates that the ross embayment was an open marine environment after a late pleistocene collapse of the marine ice sheet

the last glaciation of bear peninsula central amundsen sea embayment of antarctica constraints on timing and duration revealed by in situ cosmogenic 14c and 10be dating abstract ice streams in the pine island thwaites region of west antarctica currently dominate contributions to sea level rise from the antarctic ice sheet predictions of future ice mass loss from this area rely on physical models that are validated with geological constraints on past extent thickness and timing of ice cover however terrestrial records of ice sheet history from the region remain sparse resulting in significant model uncertainties we report glacial geological evidence for the duration and timing of the last glaciation of hunt bluff in the central amundsen sea embayment a multi nuclide approach was used measuring cosmogenic 10be and in situ 14c in bedrock surfaces and a perched erratic cobble bedrock 10be ages 118 144 ka reflect multiple periods of exposure and ice cover not continuous exposure since the last interglacial as had previously been hypothesized in situ 14c dating suggests that the last glaciation of hunt bluff did not start until 21 1 5 8 ka probably during the last glacial maximum and finished by 9 6 0 9 ka at the same time as ice sheet retreat from the continental shelf was complete thickening of ice at hunt bluff most likely post dated the maximum extent of grounded ice on the outer continental shelf flow re organisation provides a possible explanation for this with the date for onset of ice cover at hunt bluff providing a minimum age for the timing of convergence of the dotson and getz tributaries to form a single palaeo ice stream this is the first time that timing of onset of ice cover has been constrained in the amundsen sea embayment

geomorphological evidence and 10be exposure ages for the last glacial maximum and deglaciation of the velka and mala studena dolina valleys in the high tatra mountains central europe abstract 10be exposure age chronology of the last glaciation was established in a key area at the southern slopes of the high tatra mts western carpathians in situ produced 10be in moraine boulders glacially transformed bedrock surfaces and rockfall accumulations constrains the timing of the last glacial maximum lgm glacier expansion and provides chronological evidence for the post lgm decay of one of the largest paleoglaciers in the range the uncertainty weighted mean age of 22 0 0 8 ka obtained for the terminal moraine in the forefield of the velka studena dolina valley indicates that the oldest moraine was deposited close to the global lgm this finding confirms that well preserved moraines in the range were formed during the last glacial cycle and that glaciation on the southern flank of the range was more extensive than earlier in the last glacial cycle the maximum glacier extent correlates with late wurmian weichselian glacier phases in the alps the bavarian bohemian forest and the krkonose mts but probably postdates the period of maximum glaciation in the southern carpathians re advance moraines at the mouth of the velka studena dolina valley and in the middle part of the mala studena dolina valley were deposited no later than around 20 5 ka and 15 5 ka respectively the timing of these advances is broadly synchronous within the high tatra mts as well as with glacier advances in the alps bavarian bohemian forest and krkonose mts 10be exposure ages obtained from glacially transformed bedrock surfaces range between 20 5 1 7 ka and 10 7 0 3 ka constraining the onset and the final phase of the deglaciation surface exposure dating of four rockfall accumulations produced uncertainty weighted mean ages of 20 2 1 2 ka 17 0 0 7 ka 16 5 0 4 ka and 15 6 0 7 ka these ages indicate that activation of rock slope failures occurred under paraglacial conditions within a few centuries up to 1400 years after the formation of re advance moraines

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

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

the effect of spatially non uniform water loads on prediction of sea level change summary numerical modelling of postglacial rebound predics a spatially variable pattern of sea level change yet many previous models predicting late pleistocene sea level change either neglect the load of water added to the oceans or assume a spatially uniform time dependent load over the whole ocean this is a poor approximation of the load near the former ice sheet since sea level change varies geographically in addition the coastline goemetry changes through time a spectral technique has been used to solve the sea level equation on an earth model with axisymmetric distribution of ice and oceans and also for a realistic ice ocean configuration the axisymmetric model is useful for demonstrating the fundamental physics involved in sea level changes caused by changes in surface loads in particular it can be seen that the elastic and gravitational response to the load is spread over a great distance whereas the viscous response is more localized a realistic ice ocean configuration has been used to demonstrate that neglect of the melt water load underestimates the amount of uplift in fennoscandia and other regions where rebound occurs in the ocean as previously noted by wu peltier 1983 in hudson bay and that movement of the coastlines and spatially varying water loads must both be included in calculations for the north sea and other near field regions with shallow seas sea level calculations including these effects and careful analysis of the sea level and ice melting record are required to determine modifications to the viscosity profile and ice model inferred by previous inaccurate models of the ocean load in the near field

widespread collapse of the ross ice shelf during the late holocene the stability of modern ice shelves is threatened by atmospheric and oceanic warming the geologic record of formerly glaciated continental shelves provides a window into the past of how ice shelves responded to a warming climate fields of deep 560 m linear iceberg furrows on the outer western ross sea continental shelf record an early post last glacial maximum episode of ice shelf collapse that was followed by continuous retreat of the grounding line for 200 km runaway grounding line conditions culminated once the ice became pinned on shallow banks in the western ross sea this early episode of ice shelf collapse is not observed in the eastern ross sea where more episodic grounding line retreat took place more widespread 280 000 km2 retreat of the ancestral ross ice shelf occurred during the late holocene this event is recorded in sediment cores by a shift from terrigenous glacimarine mud to diatomaceous open marine sediment as well as an increase in radiogenic beryllium 10be concentrations the timing of ice shelf breakup is constrained by compound specific radiocarbon ages the first application of this technique systematically applied to antarctic marine sediments breakup initiated around 5 ka with the ice shelf reaching its current configuration 1 5 ka in the eastern ross sea the ice shelf retreated up to 100 km in about a thousand years three dimensional thermodynamic ice shelf ocean modeling results and comparison with ice core records indicate that ice shelf breakup resulted from combined atmospheric warming and warm ocean currents impinging onto the continental shelf

refining the eustatic sea level curve since the last glacial maximum using far and intermediate field sites the eustatic component of relative sea level change provides a measure of the amount of ice transferred between the continents and oceans during glacial cycles this has been quantified for the period since the last glacial maximum by correcting observed sea level change for the glacio hydro isostatic contributions using realistic ice distribution and earth models during the last glacial maximum lgm the eustatic sea level was 125 5 m lower than the present day equivalent to a land based ice volume of 4 6 4 9 107 km3 evidence for a non uniform rise in eustatic sea level from the lgm to the end of the deglaciation is examined the initial rate of rise from ca 21 to 17 ka was relatively slow with an average rate of ca 6 m ka 1 followed by an average rate of ca 10 m ka 1 for the next 10 ka significant departures from these average rates may have occurred at the time of the younger dryas and possibly also around 14 ka most of the decay of the large ice sheets was completed by 7 ka but 3 5 m of water has been added to the oceans since that time

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

deglacial history of the west antarctic ice sheet in the weddell sea embayment constraints on past ice volume change the retreat history of the west antarctic ice sheet wais since the last glacial maximum is important for understanding the process of rapid deglaciation constraining models that seek to predict the future trajectory of the ice sheet and for estimating rates of sea level change here we report new glacial geologic data from the southwestern weddell sea embayment that demonstrate that this part of the wais was thinner than previously suggested and that there was progressive thinning of the ice sheet by 230 480 m since ca 15 ka we use geomorphological data and a numerical ice sheet model to reconstruct the ice sheet in the weddell sea at the last glacial maximum the volume of this ice would have added between 1 4 and 2 0 m to postglacial sea level rise and would not have been sufficient to contribute significantly to meltwater pulse 1a a rapid rise in sea level 14 200 yr ago

well posed boundary conditions for limited domain models of transient ice flow near an ice divide when an ice flow model is constrained by data that exist over only a section of an ice sheet it is computationally advantageous to limit the model domain to only that section for example a limited domain near an ice core site might cross an ice divide and have no termini accurately calculating ice sheet evolution in response to spatial and temporal variations in climate and ice flow depends on accurately calculating the transient ice flux crossing the limited domain boundaries in the absence of information from outside the limited domain this is an ill posed problem boundary conditions based only on information from inside the limited domain can produce ice sheet evolution incompatible with the full ice sheet within which we suppose it to exist we use impulse response functions to provide boundary values that are informed by the external ice sheet without conventionally nesting the limited domain in a full ice sheet model evolution within a limited domain can then be consistent with evolution of the full ice sheet our treatment of limited domain boundary conditions is designed for future use in an inverse problem in which external changes that affected the limited domain can be inferred from data from within the limited domain

exposure ages from mountain dipsticks in mac robertson land east antarctica indicate little change in ice sheet thickness since the last glacial maximum past changes in east antarctic ice sheet eais volume are poorly known and diffi cult to measure yet are critical for predicting the response of the ice sheet to modern climate change in particular it is important to identify the sources of sea level rise since the last glacial maximum lgm and ascertain the present day stability of the world s largest ice sheet we present altitudinal transects of 10 be and 26 al exposure ages across the framnes mountains in mac robertson land that allow the magnitude and timing of eais retreat to be quantifi ed our data show that the coastal eais thinned by at most 350 m in this region during the past 13 k y this reduction in ice sheet volume occurred over a 5 k y period and the present icesheet profi le was attained ca 7 ka in contrast to the west antarctic ice sheet which continues to retreat today combined with regional offshore and terrestrial geologic evidence our data suggest that the reduction in eais volume since the lgm was smaller than that indicated by contemporary ice sheet models and added little meltwater to the global oceans stability of the ice margin since the middle holocene provides support for the hypothesis that eais volume changes are controlled by growth and decay of northern hemisphere ice sheets and associated global sea level changes

reconstruction of ice sheet changes in the antarctic peninsula since the last glacial maximum this paper compiles and reviews marine and terrestrial data constraining the dimensions and configuration of the antarctic peninsula ice sheet apis from the last glacial maximum lgm through deglaciation to the present day these data are used to reconstruct grounding line retreat in 5 ka time steps from 25 ka bp to present glacial landforms and subglacial tills on the eastern and western antarctic peninsula ap shelf indicate that the apis was grounded to the outer shelf shelf edge at the lgm and contained a series of fast flowing ice streams that drained along cross shelf bathymetric troughs the ice sheet was grounded at the shelf edge until 20 cal ka bp chronological control on retreat is provided by radiocarbon dates on glacimarine sediments from the shelf troughs and on lacustrine and terrestrial organic remains as well as cosmogenic nuclide dates on erratics and ice moulded bedrock retreat in the east was underway by about 18 cal ka bp the earliest dates on recession in the west are from bransfield basin where recession was underway by 17 5 cal ka bp ice streams were active during deglaciation at least until the ice sheet had pulled back to the mid shelf the timing of initial retreat decreased progressively southwards along the western ap shelf the large ice stream in marguerite trough may have remained grounded at the shelf edge until about 14 cal ka bp although terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide ages indicate that thinning had commenced by 18 ka bp between 15 and 10 cal ka bp the apis underwent significant recession along the western ap margin although retreat between individual troughs was asynchronous ice in marguerite trough may have still been grounded on the mid shelf at 10 cal ka bp in the larsen a region the transition from grounded to floating ice was established by 10 7 10 6 cal ka bp the apis had retreated towards its present configuration in the western ap by the mid holocene but on the eastern peninsula may have approached its present configuration several thousand years earlier by the start of the holocene mid to late holocene retreat was diachronous with stillstands re advances and changes in ice shelf configuration being recorded in most places subglacial topography exerted a major control on grounding line retreat with grounding zone wedges and thus by inference slow downs or stillstands in the retreat of the grounding line occurring in some cases on reverse bed slopes