impact of 3 d earth structure on fennoscandian glacial isostatic adjustment implications for space geodetic estimates of present day crustal deformations 1 the importance of including lateral earth structure in the analysis of fennoscandian glacial isostatic adjustment gia is investigated using a finite volume numerical formulation comparing output from radially varying 1 d earth models and models which account for the presence of plate boundaries lateral variations in lithospheric thickness and viscosity heterogeneities in the upper and lower mantle we find that perturbations to present day rates of surface deformation due to the inclusion of 3 d earth structure significantly exceed current observational uncertainties predicted residuals between 1 d and 3 d earth models may be improved with the use of a 1 d model which approximates the local depth dependent mean of the 3 d model however the remaining misfit is still large enough to significantlybiasinferencesofearthstructureandicehistory weconcludethatlateralvariationsatbothglobalandregional scales must be accounted for when interpreting gps observations from fennoscandia citation whitehouse p k latychev g a milne j x mitrovica and r kendall 2006 impact of 3 d earth structure on fennoscandian glacial isostatic adjustment implications for space geodetic estimates of presentday crustal deformations geophys res lett 33 l13502

itrf2008 plate motion model 1 the itrf2008 velocity field is demonstrated to be of higher quality and more precise than past itrf solutions we estimated an absolute tectonic plate motion model made up of 14 major plates using velocities of 206 sites of high geodetic quality far from plate boundaries deformation zones and glacial isostatic adjustment gia regions derived from and consistent with itrf2008 the precision of the estimated model is evaluated to be at the level of 0 3 mm a wrms no gia corrections were applied to site velocities prior to estimating plate rotation poles as our selected sites are outside the fennoscandia regions where the gia models we tested are performing reasonably well and far from gia areas where the models would degrade the fit antarctica and north america our selected velocity field has small origin rate bias components following the three axis x y z respectively 0 41 0 54 0 22 0 64 and 0 41 0 60 95 per cent confidence limits comparing our model to nnr nuvel 1a and the newly available nnr morvel56 we found better agreement with nnr morvel56 than with nnr nuvel 1a for all plates except for australia where we observe an average residual rotation rate of 4 mm a using our selection of sites we found large global x rotation rates between the two models 0 016 ma and between our model and nnr morvel56 of 0 023 ma equivalent to 2 5 mm a at the earth surface

rapid disintegration of the wordie ice shelf in response to atmospheric warming the breaking up of ice shelves around the antarctic peninsula has been cited1 as a sign that a dangerous warming is beginning in antarctica here we present satellite images showing the disintegration of the wordie ice shelf which lies off the west coast of the antarctic peninsula fig 1 fracture either in the form of surface crevasses or rifts extending to the bottom of the ice shelf has been responsible for iceberg calving and weakening the central region of the ice shelf these fracture processes which led to retreat of the ice front were apparently enhanced by the presence of increased amounts of melt water resulting from a warming trend recorded in mean annual air temperatures in marguerite bay if this warming trend continues other nearby ice shelves on the antarctic peninsula may be at risk but substantial additional warming would be required before similar processes could initiate breakup of the ross and filchner ronne ice shelves which help stabilize the west antarctic ice sheet

satellite gravity and the mass balance of the antarctic ice sheet changes in the earth s gravity field with time have important applications to a broad range of disciplines any process that involves a large enough horizontal redistribution of mass either within the earth or on or above its surface is potentially detectable in particular when ice sheets grow or shrink gravity changes as mass is redistributed in the solid earth and between the oceans and the ice sheets the sources of global sea level rise about 2 mm a 1 over the last century and in particular the contribution of the antarctic ice sheet thereto are not well understood gravity measurements can help to diminish this uncertainty the technology currently exists to measure gravity with high accuracy by a dual satellite mission in which the distance between the satellites is precisely monitored we estimate from recent studies that temporal changes in the gravity field as determined by a satellite gravity mission lasting 5 years at an orbital height of 400 km would be sensitive to changes in the overall mass of the antarctic ice sheet to a precision corresponding to better than 0 01 mm a 1 of sea level change however the effects of three other phenomena that could each produce a temporally varying gravity signal with characteristics comparable to that caused by a change in antarctic ice postglacial rebound inter annual variability in snowfall and atmospheric pressure trends also need to be evaluated postglacial rebound could be partly separated from ice mass changes with the aid of global positioning system campaigns and numerical models of rebound that use improved determinations of mantle viscosity also provided by the gravity mission determination of inter annual ice mass changes will be aided by measurements of moisture flux divergence around the perimeters of the ice sheets and direct observations of inter annual changes by the gravity satellite itself the removal of pressure effects over antarctica will become more effective as the number of automatic weather stations in the interior of the continent increases even after corrections are made for these factors the uncertainties they cause limit the accuracy in the determination of the contribution of the antarctic ice sheet to sea level change to about 0 5 mm a 1 however there is a strong complementarity between gravity measurements and the surface height measurements that will be produced by nasa s laser altimeter mission early next century together they should be able to determine that contribution to an accuracy of about 0 1 mm a 1

geodesy using the swedish permanent gps network effects of snow accumulation on estimates of site positions we have observed variations at the several centimeter level in estimates of the vertical coordinate of site position the estimates are obtained from our analysis of data acquired from the swedish permanent global positioning system gps network the observed variations are strongly correlated with changes in the indirectly inferred accumulation of snow which we assume collects on the radomes and pillars the gps sites could not be observed directly due to their remoteness numerical simulations which assume a simple geometry for the snow cover are used to study the effects of snow accumulation on gps phase observables and hence on estimates of the vertical coordinate of site position obtained from these observables our results indicate that the variations in the vertical coordinate of site position can be fully explained by reasonable accumulations of snow which retard the gps signals and enhance signal scattering effects

increased ice loading in the antarctic peninsula since the 1850s and its effect on glacial isostatic adjustment antarctic peninsula ap ice core records indicate significant accumulation increase since 1855 and any resultant ice mass increase has the potential to contribute substantially to present day glacial isostatic adjustment gia we derive empirical orthogonal functions from climate model output to infer typical spatial patterns of accumulation over the ap and by combining with ice core records estimate annual accumulation for the period 1855 2010 in response to this accumulation history high resolution ice sheet modeling predicts ice thickness increases of up to 45 m with the greatest thickening in the northern and western ap whilst this thickening is predicted to affect grace estimates by no more than 6 2 gt yr it may contribute up to 7 mm yr to the present day gia uplift rate depending on the chosen earth model with a strong east west gradient across the ap its consideration is therefore critical to the interpretation of observed gps velocities in the ap

mid mantle heterogeneities associated with izanagi plate implications for regional mantle viscosity abstract we employed s to p converted waveforms to detect mid mantle scattering beneath northeastern china and the adjacent japan sea broadband and short period waveforms recorded by seismic arrays for eight moderate sized deep earthquakes were analyzed using a non linear array stacking technique and mid mantle scatterers within the depth range 930 1120 km were clearly revealed the heterogeneities have an overall lateral extent of 800 km and mostly occur within a region with a high velocity anomaly the accumulation of morb like slab materials at mid mantle depths might cause a different chemical composition than that of the surrounding peridotitic mantle the spatial isolation of the heterogeneities from the stagnant pacific slab suggests an origin related to the subduction of ancient izanagi plate in combination with the reconstruction history of plate motions we estimate the viscosity of the topmost lower mantle to vary from 1 0 10 22 to 1 6 10 23 pa s which can be used as an independent constraint on the rheology of the lower mantle on a regional scale

using impacts of deep level mining to research karst hydrology a darcy based approach to predict the future of dried up dolomitic springs in the far west rand goldfield south africa part 1 a conceptual model of recharge and inter compartmental flow some of the world s deepest goldmines are located in the far west rand fwr goldfield operating below of up to 1 2 km thick dolomites hosting some of the largest karst aquifers in south africa associated impacts include the dewatering of the overlying karst aquifers as well as linking previously disconnected compartments by mining through aquicludes dykes the focus of the study is on predicting groundwater balances in re watered aquifers after mining ceases as this will determine whether or not associated karst springs that dried up due to dewatering will ever flow again critically revisiting swart et al environ geol 44 751 770 2003a who predict that all springs will flow again this study uses significantly larger data sets and modified assumptions to increase the robustness of findings as the question is crucial for post closure development as a first of two papers this part develops a conceptual model on the mega compartment concept that predicts a flat water table across all linked compartments that would leave the springs dry the model identifies the ratio between inflowing surface water recharge and underground water losses to downstream compartments via mined through dykes inter compartmental groundwater flow igf as a key factor governing the elevation of the post mining water table creating the base for part 2 where the igf and the post mining water tables are determined using unique large data sets that have not been evaluated before

increased ice losses from antarctica detected by cryosat 2 we use 3 years of cryosat 2 radar altimeter data to develop the first comprehensive assessment of antarctic ice sheet elevation change this new data set provides near continuous 96 coverage of the entire continent extending to within 215 km of the south pole and leading to a fivefold increase in the sampling of coastal regions where the vast majority of all ice losses occur between 2010 and 2013 west antarctica east antarctica and the antarctic peninsula changed in mass by 134 27 3 36 and 23 18 gt yr 1 respectively in west antarctica signals of imbalance are present in areas that were poorly surveyed by past missions contributing additional losses that bring altimeter observations closer to estimates based on other geodetic techniques however the average rate of ice thinning in west antarctica has also continued to rise and mass losses from this sector are now 31 greater than over the period 2005 2010

space geodetic constraints on glacial isostatic adjustment in fennoscandia analysis of global positioning system gps data demonstrates that ongoing three dimensional crustal deformation in fennoscandia is dominated by glacial isostatic adjustment our comparison of these gps observations with numerical predictions yields an earth model that satis es independent geologic constraints and bounds both the average viscosity in the upper mantle 5 x 10 20 to 1 x 10 21 pascal seconds and the elastic thickness of the lithosphere 90 to 170 kilometers we combined gps derived radial motions with fennoscandian tide gauge records to estimate a regional sea surface rise of 2 1 0 3 mm year furthermore ongoing horizontal tectonic motions greater than 1 mm year are ruled out on the basis of the gps derived three dimensional crustal velocity field

inference of mantle viscosity from grace and relative sea level data summary gravity recovery and climate experiment grace satellite observations of secular changes in gravity near hudson bay and geological measurements of relative sea level rsl changes over the last 10 000 yr in the same region are used in a monte carlo inversion to infer mantle viscosity structure the grace secular change in gravity shows a significant positive anomaly over a broad region 3000 km near hudson bay with a maximum of 2 5 gal yr 1 slightly west of hudson bay the pattern of this anomaly is remarkably consistent with that predicted for postglacial rebound using the ice 5g deglaciation history strongly suggesting a postglacial rebound origin for the gravity change we find that the grace and rsl data are insensitive to mantle viscosity below 1800 km depth a conclusion similar to that from previous studies that used only rsl data for a mantle with homogeneous viscosity the grace and rsl data require a viscosity between 1 4 1021 and 2 3 1021 pa s an inversion for two mantle viscosity layers separated at a depth of 670 km shows an ensemble of viscosity structures compatible with the data while the lowest misfit occurs for upper and lower mantle viscosities of 5 3 1020 and 2 3 1021 pa s respectively a weaker upper mantle may be compensated by a stronger lower mantle such that there exist other models that also provide a reasonable fit to the data we find that the grace and rsl data used in this study cannot resolve more than two layers in the upper 1800 km of the mantle

little ice age cold interval in west antarctica evidence from borehole temperature at the west antarctic ice sheet wais divide 1 the largest climate anomaly of the last 1000 years in the northern hemisphere was the little ice age lia from 1400 1850 c e but little is known about the signature of this event in the southern hemisphere especially in antarctica we present temperature data from a 300 m borehole at the west antarctic ice sheet wais divide results show that wais divide was colder than the last 1000 year average from 1300 to 1800 c e the temperature in the time period 1400 1800 c e was on average 0 52 0 28 c colder than the last 100 year average this amplitude is about half of that seen at greenland summit grip this result is consistent with the idea that the lia was a global event probably caused by a change in solar and volcanic forcing and was not simply a seesaw type redistribution of heat between the hemispheres as would be predicted by some ocean circulation hypotheses the difference in the magnitude of the lia between greenland and west antarctica suggests that the feedbacks amplifying the radiative forcing may not operate in the same way in both regions

relative sea level curves for the south shetland islands and marguerite bay antarctic peninsula this paper presents preliminary relative sea level curves for the marguerite bay region and for the south shetland islands the marguerite bay curve is constrained by both new and previously published 14c dates on penguin remains and shells and on two isolation basins dating back to 6500 14c yr bp extrapolation back to the marine limit yields a minimum deglaciation date for marguerite bay of ca 9000 14c yr bp analysis of beach clasts suggests that there was a period of increased wave activity perhaps related to a reduction in summer sea ice extent between ca 3500 and ca 2400 14c yr bp the curve for the south shetland islands is derived entirely from published 14c dates from isolation basins and on whalebone penguin bone and seal bone the curve shows an initial relative sea level fall which was interrupted by a period in the mid holocene when relative sea level rose to a highstand of between 14 5 and 16 m above mean sea level amsl before falling again

glacial isostatic adjustment on 3 d earth models a finite volume formulation summary we describe and present results from a finite volume fv parallel computer code for forward modelling the maxwell viscoelastic response of a 3 d self gravitating elastically compressible earth to an arbitrary surface load we implement a conservative control volume discretization of the governing equations using a tetrahedral grid in cartesian geometry and a low order linear interpolation the basic starting grid honours all major radial discontinuities in the preliminary reference earth model prem and the models are permitted arbitrary spatial variations in viscosity and elastic parameters these variations may be either continuous or discontinuous at a set of grid nodes forming a 3 d surface within the regional or global modelling domain in the second part of the paper we adopt the fv methodology and a spherically symmetric earth model to generate a suite of predictions sampling a broad class of glacial isostatic adjustment gia data types 3 d crustal motions long wavelength gravity anomalies these calculations based on either a simple disc load history or a global late pleistocene ice load reconstruction ice 3g are benchmarked against predictions generated using the traditional normal mode approach to gia the detailed comparison provides a guide for future analyses e g what grid resolution is required to obtain a specific accuracy and it indicates that discrepancies in predictions of 3 d crustal velocities less than 0 1 mm yr 1 are generally obtainable for global grids with 3 106 nodes however grids of higher resolution are required to predict large amplitude 1 cm yr 1 radial velocities in zones of peak post glacial uplift e g james bay to the same level of absolute accuracy we conclude the paper with a first application of the new formulation to a 3 d problem specifically we consider the impact of mantle viscosity heterogeneity on predictions of present day 3 d crustal motions in north america in these tests the lateral viscosity variation is constructed with suitable scaling from tomographic images of seismic s wave heterogeneity and it is characterized by approximately 2 orders of magnitude peak to peak lateral variations within the lower mantle and 1 order of magnitude variations in the bulk of the upper mantle below the asthenosphere we find that the introduction of 3 d viscosity structure has a profound impact on horizontal velocities indeed the magnitude of the perturbation of order 1 mm yr 1 is as large as the prediction generated from the underlying 1 d radial reference model and it far exceeds observational uncertainties currently being obtained from space geodetic surveying the relative impact of lateral viscosity variations on predicted radial motions is significantly smaller

late cretaceous to early tertiary subduction history of the antarctic peninsula quantitative estimates of the rates and azimuths of phoenix plate convergence with the antarctic peninsula have been derived from plate rotation calculations for two periods in the late cretaceous and early tertiary 83 0 67 7 and 61 1 53 4 ma published marine magnetic anomaly identifications and flow lines interpreted from gravity anomaly maps were used in simple spherical geometry calculations to derive phoenix pacific stage rotations these were combined with published pacific antarctic rotation data to determine contemporaneous phoenix antarctic stage rotations the results indicate a significant change in azimuths of relative motion between the late cretaceous and early tertiary late cretaceous and perhaps earlier oblique subduction probably caused migration of fore arc slivers along the margin resulting in variations in width of the accretionary prism comparison between synthetic magnetic profiles and a 900 km long magnetic profile across ocean floor produced at the antarctic phoenix ridge during the early tertiary establishes the time of a major decrease in spreading rate and hence also in convergence rate as chron c23r 52 3 ma the associated change in subduction dynamics may have caused the dextral transtensional deformation observed in the george vi sound region and initiated uplift of blueschist facies rocks now exposed on smith island the calculated convergence history does not provide a simple explanation for the occurrence of high mg andesite lavas on alexander island which were erupted more than 20 ma before the antarctic phoenix ridge arrived at the margin the existence of these lavas implies either earlier subduction of another ridge or slab break up beneath alexander island

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

uncertainty in the velocity between the mass center and surface of earth 1 using spectral analysis and data decimation we estimate the uncertainty in the velocity between the cumulative mass center of earth cm and geodetic sites on earth s surface knowing this velocity is crucial for evaluating space geodetic observations of continental uplift and subsidence in terms of postglacial rebound and sea level rise we find slr observations of satellite lageos to constrain the x and y components of the velocity of cm to 0 4 mm yr and the z component to 0 9 mm yr 95 confidence limits x is in the direction of 0 n0 e y of 0 n9 0 e and z of 90 n the uncertainty in z is high so that the estimate includes the independent inference made jointly using site velocities the rigid plate hypothesis and models of postglacial rebound that the true velocity of cm has a z component of 0 5 1 0 mm yr relative to that in itrf2008 uncertainty in scale rate an intermediate parameter in the determination of an itrf is 0 36 mm yr for vlbi 0 52 mm yr for slr and 0 20 mm yr for gps the scale of gps depends on that of vlbi and slr but the low gps uncertainty indicates that gps results are for the first time unbiased by changing satellite block types evidently due to newly incorporated satellite phase center variations gps constrains the velocity of cm nearly as well as slr representing a technical advance given that a gps satellite is not a sphere and responds strongly to solar radiation pressure citation argus d f 2012 uncertainty in the velocity between the mass center and surface of earth j geophys res 117 b10405 doi 10 1029 2012jb009196

lower satellite gravimetry estimates of antarctic sea level contribution a new model of glacial isostatic adjustment used in conjunction with grace satellite data suggests that ice loss from antarctica is contributing 0 19 millimetres per year to global mean sea level which is substantially less than previous grace based estimates estimates for recent mass loss from antarctica vary widely making it difficult to calculate any subsequent contributions to sea level rise one prominent approach uses the grace gravity recovery and climate experiment satellites to detect changes in gravity but the final estimates are dependent on the modelled response of the continent to changes in ice loading over time and to changes in lithospheric elastic rebound matt king and colleagues apply a new model of this glacial isostatic adjustment to the grace data and estimate antarctic mass loss between 2002 and 2010 to be about 69 gigatonnes per year much lower than previous estimates and equivalent to an annual sea level rise of about 0 2 millimetres recent estimates of antarctica s present day rate of ice mass contribution to changes in sea level range from 31 gigatonnes a year gt yr 1 ref 1 to 246 gt yr 1 ref 2 a range that cannot be reconciled within formal errors3 time varying rates of mass loss2 4 5 6 contribute to this but substantial technique specific systematic errors also exist3 in particular estimates of secular ice mass change derived from gravity recovery and climate experiment grace satellite data are dominated by significant uncertainty in the accuracy of models of mass change due to glacial isostatic adjustment7 8 gia here we adopt a new model of gia developed from geological constraints which produces gia rates systematically lower than those of previous models and an improved fit to independent uplift data9 after applying the model to 99 months from august 2002 to december 2010 of grace data we estimate a continent wide ice mass change of 69 18 gt yr 1 0 19 0 05 mm yr 1 sea level equivalent this is about a third to a half of the most recently published grace estimates2 5 which cover a similar time period but are based on older gia models plausible gia model uncertainties and errors relating to removing longitudinal grace artefacts destriping confine our estimate to the range 126 gt yr 1 to 29 gt yr 1 0 08 0 35 mm yr 1 sea level equivalent we resolve 26 independent drainage basins and find that antarctic mass loss and its acceleration is concentrated in basins along the amundsen sea coast outside this region we find that west antarctica is nearly in balance and that east antarctica is gaining substantial mass

understanding subsidence in the mississippi delta region due to sediment ice and ocean loading insights from geophysical modeling the processes responsible for land surface subsidence in the mississippi delta md have been vigorously debated numerous studies have postulated a dominant role for isostatic subsidence associated with sediment loading previous computational modeling of present day vertical land motion has been carried out in order to understand geodetic data while the magnitudes of these measured rates have been reproduced the model parameter values required have often been extreme and in some cases unrealistic in contrast subsidence rates in the md on the 103 year timescale due to delta loading estimated from relative sea level reconstructions are an order of magnitude lower in an attempt to resolve this conflict a sensitivity analysis was carried out using a spherically symmetric viscoelastic solid earth deformation model with sediment ice and ocean load histories the model results were compared with geologic and geodetic observations that provide a record of vertical land motion over three distinctly different timescales past 80 kyr past 7 kyr and past 15 years it was found that glacial isostatic adjustment is likely to be the dominant contributor to vertical motion of the pleistocene and underlying basement present day basement subsidence rates solely due to sediment loading are found to be less than 0 5 mm yr 1 the analysis supports previous suggestions in the literature that earth rheology parameters are time dependent specifically the effective elastic thickness of the lithosphere may be 50 km on a 105 year timescale but closer to 100 km over 103 to 104 year timescales

on post glacial sea level i general theory summary modern analyses of sea level changes due to glacial isostatic adjustment gia are based on the classic sea level equation derived by farrell clark 1976 geophys j r astr soc 46 647 667 the connection between global sea level variations and changes to ocean height that is assumed within this equation breaks down in the presence of a time varying shoreline geometry we present a generalized sea level equation that overcomes this difficulty we also derive analytic expressions for and present schematic illustrations of the error in the ocean height change over finite time intervals introduced in published efforts to incorporate shoreline evolution into the theory of gia induced sea level change this comparison includes studies of shoreline migration due to either local sea level changes or the growth and ablation of marine based ice we conclude that the theories applied by johnston 1993 geophys j int 114 615 634 milne 1998 phd thesis university of toronto toronto and co workers are more accurate than the procedure advocated by peltier 1994 science 265 195 201 1998a geophys res lett 25 3955 3958 1998b rev geophys 114 615 634 although an improvement in the latter has recently been reported peltier drummond 2002 geophys res lett 29 10 1029 2001gl014273 our generalized theory is valid for any earth model in a companion paper we derive the equations necessary to treat the special case of a spherically symmetric linear viscoelastic and rotating earth and we quantify errors associated with previous work

cold conditions in antarctica during the little ice age implications for abrupt climate change mechanisms abstract the little ice age lia is one of the most prominent climate shifts in the past 5000 yrs it has been suggested that the lia might be the most recent of the dansgaard oeschger events which are better known as abrupt large scale climate oscillations during the last glacial period if the case then according to broecker 2000a 2000b antarctica should have warmed during the lia when the northern hemisphere was cold here we present new data from the ross sea antarctica that indicates surface temperatures were 2 c colder during the lia with colder sea surface temperatures in the southern ocean and or increased sea ice extent stronger katabatic winds and decreased snow accumulation whilst we find there was large spatial and temporal variability overall antarctica was cooler and stormier during the lia although temperatures have warmed since the termination of the lia atmospheric circulation strength has remained at the same elevated level we conclude that the lia was either caused by alternative forcings or that the sea saw mechanism operates differently during warm periods

a new inference of mantle viscosity based upon joint inversion of convection and glacial isostatic adjustment data we present new profiles of mantle viscosity derived on the basis of non linear occam style joint inversions of an extensive set of data associated with mantle convection and glacial isostatic adjustment gia the convection related observables include satellite derived free air gravity harmonics the geodetically inferred excess ellipticity of the cmb and tectonic plate motions the gia constraints involve two classes of observables previously shown to be relatively insensitive to errors in the late pleistocene ice history the so called fennoscandian relaxation spectrum frs and a set of site specific decay times determined from the postglacial sea level history in hudson bay and sweden the inverted viscosity profiles show a significant three orders of magnitude increase from the upper mantle mean value of f4 10 20 pa s to a high viscosity 10 23 pa s peak at

computations of the viscoelastic response of a 3 d compressible earth to surface loading an application to glacial isostatic adjustment in antarctica and canada s u m m a r y we develop a 3 d finite element model to study the viscoelastic response of a compressible earth to surface loads the effects of centre of mass motion polar wander feedback and selfconsistent ocean loading are implemented to assess the model s accuracy we benchmark the numerical results against a semi analytic solution for spherically symmetric structure we force our model with the ice 5g global ice loading history to study the effects of laterally varying viscosity structure on several glacial isostatic adjustment gia observables including relative sea level rsl measurements incanada and present day time variable gravity and uplift rates in antarctica canadian rsl observations have been used to determine the earth s globally averaged viscosity profile antarcticgps uplift rates have been used to constrainantarcticgia models and gia time variable gravity and uplift signals are error sources for grace and altimeter estimates of present day antarctic ice mass loss and must be modelled and removed from those estimates computinggia results for a 3 d viscosity profile derived from a realistic seismic tomography model and comparing with results computed for 1 d averages of that 3 d profile we conclude that 1 a gia viscosity model based on canadian relative sea level data is more likely to represent a canadian average than a true global average 2 the effects of 3 d viscosity structure on grace estimates of present day antarctic mass loss are probably smaller than the difference between gia models based on different antarctic deglaciation histories and 3 the effects of 3 d viscosity structure on antarctic gps observations of present day uplift rate can be significant and can complicate efforts to use gps observations to constrain 1 d gia models

the antarctica component of postglacial rebound model ice 6g_c vm5a based on gps positioning exposure age dating of ice thicknesses and relative sea level histories

nloadf a program for computing ocean tide loading the loading of the earth by the ocean tides produces several kinds of signals which can be measured by geodetic technique in order to compute these most accurately a combination of global and local models of the ocean tides may be needed the program nloadf convolves the green functions for loading with ocean tide models using a station centered grid with fixed dimensions making it easy to combine different ocean models without overlap in the convolution the program computes all the quantities of interest gravity displacement tilt and strain and includes the case where measurements are made beneath the surface of the ocean

space geodesy constrains ice age terminal deglaciation the global ice 6g_c vm5a model a new model of the last deglaciation event of the late quaternary ice age is here described and denoted as ice 6g c vm5a it differs from previously published models in this sequence in that it has been explicitly refined by applying all of the available global positioning system gps measurements of vertical motion of the crust that may be brought to bear to constrain the thickness of local ice cover as well as the timing of its removal additional space geodetic constraints have also been applied to specify the reference frame within which the gps data are described the focus of the paper is upon the three main regions of last glacial maximum ice cover namely north america northwestern europe eurasia and antarctica although greenland and the british isles will also be included if peripherally in the discussion in each of the three major regions the model predictions of the time rate of change of the gravitational field are also compared to that being measured by the gravity recovery and climate experiment satellites as an independent means of verifying the improvement of the model achieved by applying the gps constraints several aspects of the global characteristics of this new model are also discussed including the nature of relative sea level history predictions at far field locations in particular the caribbean island of barbados from which especially high quality records of postglacial sea level change are available but which records were not employed in the development of the model although ice 6g c vm5a is a significant improvement insofar as the most recently available gps observations are concerned comparison of model predictions with such far field relative sea level histories enables us to identify a series of additional improvements that should follow from a further stage of model iteration

continuous gps measurements of postglacial adjustment in fennoscandia 1 geodetic results 1 data collected under the auspices of the bifrost gps project yield a geographically dense suite of estimates of present day three dimensional 3 d crustal deformation rates in fennoscandia johansson et al 2002 a preliminary forward analysis of these estimates milne et al 2001 has indicated that models of ongoing glacial isostatic adjustment gia in response to the final deglaciation event of the current ice age are able to provide an excellent fit to the observed 3 d velocity field in this study we revisit our previous gia analysis by considering a more extensive suite of forward calculations and by performing the first formal joint inversion of the bifrost rate estimates to establish insight into the physics of the gia response in the region we begin by decomposing a forward prediction into the three contributions associated with the ice ocean and rotational forcings from this analysis we demonstrate that recent advances in postglacial sea level theory in particular the inclusion of rotational effects and improvements in the treatment of the ocean load in the vicinity of an evolving continental margin involve peak signals that are larger than the observational uncertainties in the bifrost network the forward analysis is completed by presenting predictions for a pair of fennoscandian ice histories and an extensive suite of viscoelastic earth models the former indicates that the bifrost data set provides a powerful discriminant of such histories the latter yields bounds on the assumed constant upper and lower mantle viscosity nu um nu lm specifically we derive a 95 confidence interval of 5 x 10 20 less than or equal to nu um less than or equal to 10 21 pa s and 5 x 10 21 less than or equal to nu lm less than or equal to 5 x 10 22 pa s with some preference for elastic lithospheric thickness in excess of 100 km the main goal of the bayesian inverse analysis is to estimate the radial resolving power of the bifrost gps data as a function of depth in the mantle assuming a reasonably accurate ice history we demonstrate that this resolving power varies from similar to 200 km near the base of the upper mantle to similar to 700 km in the top portion of the lower mantle we conclude that the bifrost data are able to resolve structure on radial length scale significantly smaller than a single upper mantle layer however these data provide little constraint on viscosity in the bottom half of the mantle finally elements of both the forward and inverse analyses indicate that radial and horizontal velocity estimates provide distinct constraints on mantle viscosity

acceleration of snow melt in an antarctic peninsula ice core during the twentieth century over the past 50 years warming of the antarctic peninsula has been accompanied by accelerating glacier mass loss and the retreat and collapse of ice shelves a key driver of ice loss is summer melting however it is not usually possible to specifically reconstruct the summer conditions that are critical for determining ice melt in antarctic here we reconstruct changes in ice melt intensity and mean temperature on the northern antarctic peninsula since ad 1000 based on the identification of visible melt layers in the james ross island ice core and local mean annual temperature estimates from the deuterium content of the ice during the past millennium the coolest conditions and lowest melt occurred from about ad 1410 to 1460 when mean temperature was 1 6 c lower than that of 1981 2000 since the late 1400s there has been a nearly tenfold increase in melt intensity from 0 5 to 4 9 the warming has occurred in progressive phases since about ad 1460 but intensification of melt is nonlinear and has largely occurred since the mid twentieth century summer melting is now at a level that is unprecedented over the past 1 000 years we conclude that ice on the antarctic peninsula is now particularly susceptible to rapid increases in melting and loss in response to relatively small increases in mean temperature

a deglacial model for antarctica geological constraints and glaciological modelling as a basis for a new model of antarctic glacial isostatic adjustment abstract we present a new reconstruction of the antarctic ice sheets between 20 ka bp and the present day our reconstruction is derived using a numerical model to generate a physically consistent ice surface across the whole of the continent we define the extent of the ice sheet at five time slices 20 15 10 5 and 0 ka bp assuming an equilibrium state for the 20 ka bp time slice and a transient state for the deglacial time slices the evolution of the ice sheet within the numerical model is driven by variations in temperature accumulation rate and relative sea level in order to reconstruct the concave profile of the ice sheet in marine grounded regions such as the ross and weddell seas we force our model to develop channels of faster flow by defining greater basal sliding along the trajectory of former ice streams we find a strong dependence upon the basal sliding parameters and also the position of the grounding line we use an extensive data base of geological and glaciological data to constrain our ice sheet reconstruction grounding line extent is prescribed from marine geological data and we test ice sheet thickness against onshore geological data at 62 sites of the five time slices considered our 20 ka bp reconstruction is the best constrained by data and has an rms misfit of 147 6 m when compared to observations of ice thickness change between 20 ka bp and the present day across all time slices there are large regions of the ice sheet which are poorly constrained especially after 20 ka bp we estimate the spatial distribution of uncertainty in our ice sheet reconstruction and note that the solutions are least reliable in regions of complex topography we predict that the antarctic ice sheets contributed 9 1 5 m of eustatic sea level to the global ocean between 20 ka bp and the present and our reconstruction with minimum misfit contributes 8 m eustatic sea level during this period these values which we argue are an upper bound are lower than many previous estimates the reconstructed pattern of ice unloading can serve as a new input for glacial isostatic models

reconstruction of changes in the weddell sea sector of the antarctic ice sheet since the last glacial maximum the weddell sea sector is one of the main formation sites for antarctic bottom water and an outlet for about one fifth of antarctica s continental ice volume over the last few decades studies on glacial geological records in this sector have provided conflicting reconstructions of changes in ice sheet extent and ice sheet thickness since the last glacial maximum lgm at ca 23 19 calibrated kiloyears before present cal ka bp terrestrial geomorphological records and exposure ages obtained from rocks in the hinterland of the weddell sea ice sheet thickness constraints from ice cores and some radiocarbon dates on offshore sediments were interpreted to indicate no significant ice thickening and locally restricted grounding line advance at the lgm other marine geological and geophysical studies concluded that subglacial bedforms mapped on the weddell sea continental shelf subglacial deposits and sediments over compacted by overriding ice recovered in cores and the few available radiocarbon ages from marine sediments are consistent with major ice sheet advance at the lgm reflecting the geological interpretations different ice sheet models have reconstructed conflicting lgm ice sheet configurations for the weddell sea sector consequently the estimated contributions of ice sheet build up in the weddell sea sector to the lgm sea level low stand of 130 m vary considerably in this paper we summarise and review the geological records of past ice sheet margins and past ice sheet elevations in the weddell sea sector we compile marine and terrestrial chronological data constraining former ice sheet size thereby highlighting different levels of certainty and present two alternative scenarios of the lgm ice sheet configuration including time slice reconstructions for post lgm grounding line retreat moreover we discuss consistencies and possible reasons for inconsistencies between the various reconstructions and propose objectives for future research the aim of our study is to provide two alternative interpretations of glacial geological datasets on antarctic ice sheet history for the weddell sea sector which can be utilised to test and improve numerical ice sheet models

further evidence of fracture zone induced tectonic segmentation of the antarctic peninsula from detailed aeromagnetic anomalies aeromagnetic anomaly data collected between 67 s and 70 s crossing the antarctic peninsula and adjacent offshore areas show a prominent nw se trend in the magnetic fabric apparent lateral offsets previously recognized in the pacific margin anomaly have been mapped in detail and are shown to be much smaller than previously suggested a 35 km wide zone of subdued magnetic anomalies at the western edge of the pacific margin anomaly bounded by these apparent offsets is interpreted as a downfaulted block of the mafic intermediate batholith thought to be responsible for the pacific margin anomaly the trends of both fracture zones and magnetic lineaments strongly support the link between faulting in the antarctic peninsula magmatic arc and offshore tectonics

correction to ocean tides in the weddell sea new observations on the filchner ronne and larsen c ice shelves and model validation ocean tides under the large weddell sea ice shelves are among the least well observed on earth here we present new spatially extensive observations of the vertical tidal motion of the filchner ronne and larsen c ice shelves using global positioning system gps data spanning a few weeks to years we pay particular attention to the major tidal constituents m2 s2 o1 k1 as well as important grace aliasing periods k2 and s1 we compare the estimated constituents with recent global and regional tide models and find that no single model is the most accurate across all constituents or ice shelves the root sum square errors are 7 8 cm cats2008a and tpxo7 2 and 11 12 cm got4 7 and fes2004 with the energetic m2 rmse 4 8 cm and s2 4 5 cm generally dominating these statistics the fes2004 k1 is particularly inaccurate near the larsen c ice shelf with errors approaching 20 cm meaning that grace release 4 estimates of mass change in the northern antarctic peninsula will be biased we find tidal energy at 3 4 5 6 and weakly at 7 cycles per day at all of our sites the largest amplitudes within these bands are at m4 mo3 and sp3 and approach 30 mm although significant spatial variations exist we show that they generally do not appear to originate in areas of reduced water column in ice shelf grounding zones comparing model estimates with our m4 ms4 and mn4 values shows that models do not accurately represent these terms

troposphere mapping functions for gps and very long baseline interferometry from european centre for medium range weather forecasts operational analysis data 1 in the analyses of geodetic very long baseline interferometry vlbi and gps data the analytic form used for mapping of the atmosphere delay from zenith to the line of site is most often a three parameter continued fraction in 1 sin elevation using the 40 years reanalysis era 40 data of the european centre for medium range weather forecasts for the year 2001 the b and c coefficients of the continued fraction form for the hydrostatic mapping functions have been redetermined unlike previous mapping functions based on data from numerical weather models isobaric mapping functions niell 2000 and vienna mapping functions vmf boehm and schuh 2004 the new c coefficients are dependent on the day of the year and unlike the niell mapping functions niell 1996 they are no longer symmetric with respect to the equator apart from the opposite phase for the two hemispheres compared to vmf this causes an effect on the vlbi or gps station heights that is constant and as large as 2 mm at the equator and that varies seasonally between 4 mm and 0 mm at the poles the updated vmf based on these new coefficients and called vmf1 hereinafter yields slightly better baseline length repeatabilities for vlbi data the hydrostatic and wet mapping functions are applied in various combinations with different kinds of a priori zenith delays in the analyses of all vlbi international vlbi service for geodesy and astrometry ivs r1 and ivs r4 24 hour sessions of 2002 and 2003 the investigations concentrate on baseline length repeatabilities as well as on absolute changes of station heights

uplift rates from a new high density gps network in palmer land indicate significant late holocene ice loss in the southwestern weddell sea the measurement of ongoing ice mass loss and associated melt water contribution to sea level change from regions such as west antarctica is dependent on a combination of remote sensing methods a key method the measurement of changes in earth s gravity via the grace satellite mission requires a potentially large correction to account for the isostatic response of the solid earth to ice load changes since the last glacial maximum in this study we combine glacial isostatic adjustment modelling with a new gps dataset of solid earth deformation for the southern antarctic peninsula to test the current understanding of ice history in this region a sufficiently complete history of past ice load change is required for glacial isostatic adjustment models to accurately predict the spatial variation of ongoing solid earth deformation once the independently constrained effects of present day ice mass loss have been accounted for comparisons between the gps data and glacial isostatic adjustment model predictions reveal a substantial misfit the misfit is localized on the southwestern weddell sea where current ice models under predict uplift rates by approximately 2 mm yr 1 this under prediction suggests that either the retreat of the ice sheet grounding line in this region occurred significantly later in the holocene than currently assumed or that the region previously hosted more ice than currently assumed this finding demonstrates the need for further fieldwork to obtain direct constraints on the timing of holocene grounding line retreat in the southwestern weddell sea and that grace estimates of ice sheet mass balance will be unreliable in this region until this is resolved

barbados based estimate of ice volume at last glacial maximum affected by subducted plate coral records from the barbados have been used to infer that due to ice expansion sea level was 120 m lower than today during the last glacial maximum a 3d simulation of the mantle in this region suggests these estimates were biased by the presence of a subducted slab and indicates the sea level difference was closer to 130 m

improving ice core interpretation using in situ and reanalysis data 1 back trajectory analysis provided by the british atmospheric data centre using meteorological parameters from the european centre for medium range weather forecasts ecmwf reanalysis era 40 1980 2001 and operational analysis 2002 2006 is used to investigate transport pathways and source regions of climate proxies preserved in a new ice core gomez from the southwestern antarctic peninsula the ecmwf data are compared with automatic weather station data and ice core annual accumulation records to demonstrate that the ecmwf data capture a large proportion of the annual and subseasonal precipitation variability at the site the back trajectories reveal that precipitation preserved in the ice core accumulation record and hence climate proxies contained therein originate from the low pressure systems from the bellingshausen sea transported via circumpolar westerly winds hence precipitation dependent ice core proxies such as isotopic composition will be influenced by both localized sea ice extent and large scale circulation changes such as the southern annular mode sea ice proxies from the ice core are expected to be dominated by sea ice extent in the bellingshausen sea but also influenced by sea ice in the weddell sea with a small proportion of air mass trajectories originating from this region during the summer comparison with other ice core sites reveals a stronger influence of easterly transport at more northerly locations thus explaining the observed differences in snow accumulation records between ice cores and the poor correlation with instrumental records at these sites

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

estimating geocenter variations from a combination of grace and ocean model output 1 in this study we estimate a time series of geocenter anomalies from a combination of data from the gravityrecoveryandclimateexperiment grace satellitemissionandthe outputfromoceanmodels amatrixequationisderivedrelating totalgeocentervariations to the grace coefficients of degrees two and higher and to the oceanic component of the degree one coefficients we estimate the oceanic component from two state of the art ocean models results are compared to independent estimates of geocenter derived from other satellite data such as satellite laser ranging and gps finally we compute degree one coefficients that are consistent with the processing applied to the grace level 2 gravity field coefficients the estimated degree one coefficients can be used to improve estimates of mass variability from grace which alone cannot provide them directly

fire increases dust production from chaparral soils abstract by altering the physical and chemical properties of a landscape fire may increase its vulnerability to erosive processes whereas sediment transport by surface runoff after fires has been often investigated less is known about the role of wind erosion in burned terrain to examine how fire might increase a soil s vulnerability to aeolian transport intact soil samples were collected from a chaparral landscape in southern california and heated with a propane torch with temperatures ranging from 250 to 1025 c and for durations of 5 60 min to simulate a variety of burn severities the samples were then subjected to simulated wind and the amounts of eroded sediment were measured results indicate a linear increase in the production of wind erodible sediment with applied heat up to 10 mj m 2 the increase was not due to a reduction in the threshold shear velocity of the soil surface but instead to the role of heat in detaching erodible material in these soils organic material may be an important binding agent destroyed at high temperatures the relationship between fire and erodibility is complex however because heating may also help to aggregate soil particles experiments performed here also suggest a synergistic effect between fire and rain whereby heated soils are more vulnerable to the erosive power of raindrop impacts additionally the soil heating experiments were used to measure and compare the thermal conductivities of intact and disturbed soils finally it is concluded that soil heating may increase the emission of dust through the detachment of erodible particles a result that may help in the anticipation of respiratory problems for those living downwind of burned areas

animated tectonic reconstruction of the southern pacific and alkaline volcanism at its convergent margins since eocene times abstract an animated reconstruction shows south pacific plate kinematics in the reference frame of west antarctica between 55 ma and the present day the ocean floor in the region formed due to seafloor spreading between the antarctic pacific phoenix and nazca plates a plate formed by fragmentation of the farallon plate early in oligocene times the pacific antarctic ridge remained fairly stable throughout this time migrating relatively northwestwards by various mechanisms behind the rapidly moving pacific plate the nazca and phoenix plates also moved quickly but relatively towards the east or southeast and were subducted in these directions beneath the south american and antarctic plates segments of spreading centres forming at the trailing edges of the nazca and phoenix plates periodically collided with these subduction zones resulting in the total destruction of the nazca phoenix spreading centre and the partial destruction of the nazca antarctica spreading centre the chile ridge and antarctic phoenix ridge which ceased to operate shortly before its northeasternmost three segments could collide with the antarctic margin following collision of segments of the chile ridge parts of the antarctic plate underwent subduction at the chile trench after these collisions slab windows should have formed beneath both the south american and antarctic convergent margins and the animation shows occurrences of alkaline volcanism that have been or can newly be related to them further occurrences of alkali basalts at the margins of the powell basin and more speculatively james ross island can be related to the formation of a slab window beneath them following the collision of segments of the south america antarctica spreading centre in the northwest weddell sea

scotia sea regional tectonic evolution implications for mantle flow and palaeocirculation abstract the scotia sea and surrounding scotia arc have evolved over the past 40 ma by extension behind an east migrating subduction zone at the boundary between the south american sam and antarctic ant plates the considerable data set now available regional geology and geophysics earthquake seismology satellite altimetry global plate analyses suggest why east migrating subduction began what has been the driving force that has sustained it and what other processes have controlled the mode of back arc extension in the scotia sea a suite of six reconstructions has been developed based on this data set the reconstruction to 40 ma creates a compact cuspate continental connection between south america and the antarctic peninsula at the subducting pacific margin with fragments now dispersed around the scotia arc occupying positions within it compatible with their known geology the driving force has been subduction of south american ocean floor which began as a result of southward migration of the pole of south american antarctic plate rotation and a key modulator of back arc extension has been collision of ridge crest sections of the south american antarctic plate boundary with the east advancing trench cenozoic regional tectonic evolution has two other likely consequences which greatly increase its importance firstly this region saw the tectonic disruption of the final barrier to complete circum antarctic deep water flow that may have had a profound effect on palaeoclimate secondly it is possible that the rapid roll back of the hinge of subduction is related to shallow eastward flow in the sub lithospheric mantle both of these consequences are explored the reconstructions show that rapid roll back of the subduction hinge averaging 50 mm a over the last 40 ma with respect to the south american plate has been a feature of all of scotia sea evolution and provide a history of motion of several oceanic microplates most of which are now welded together within the scotia sea this will guide the location of seismometers and or dredge hauls to test the hypothesis of shallow mantle flow and help interpret the results the reconstructions also allow an assessment of the creation of deep water pathways that would have permitted the development of the present day antarctic circumpolar current acc an early miocene onset within the period 22 17 ma seems likely for the acc depending on the structure and palaeo elevation of davis bank and aurora bank sections of the north scotia ridge however the study shows there was a delay of one or more million years between initial provision of a deep water pathway and the major mid miocene change in global climate involving the general level of antarctic glaciation that may have been related if these changes were related then the delay suggests that other factors possibly rough elevated ocean floor but also non tectonic factors such as atmospheric co2 were important in determining palaeoclimate

interpreting temperature information from ice cores along the antarctic peninsula era40 analysis 1 analysis of era40 temperature and accumulation data suggests that annual mean isotopic fluctuations due to temperature change will be geographically very variable across the peninsula isotopic variations of 0 4 at james ross island 0 9 at dyer and 1 3 at gomez are all likely to indicate an identical magnitude of temperature change the reduction in the magnitude of the isotopic signal in the north and east is due to climatically dependent synoptic covariance between temperature and accumulation whilst in the west and south seasonal covariance amplifies the isotopic temperature signal additionally we show that the relationship between accumulation and temperature is rather weak in the north east regions but is stronger in the central and southerly regions therefore isotopes may record 11 to 30 of the variance in annual mean temperatures in the north east 75 in central regions and 70 in the south this study enables physically based reconstructions of peninsula climate based on multi core analysis citation sime l c g j marshall r mulvaney and e r thomas 2009 interpreting temperature information from ice cores along the antarctic peninsula era40 analysis geophys res lett 36 l18801 doi 10 1029 2009gl038982

rapid bedrock uplift in the antarctic peninsula explained by viscoelastic response to recent ice unloading abstract since 1995 several ice shelves in the northern antarctic peninsula have collapsed and triggered ice mass unloading invoking a solid earth response that has been recorded at continuous gps cgps stations a previous attempt to model the observation of rapid uplift following the 2002 breakup of larsen b ice shelf was limited by incomplete knowledge of the pattern of ice unloading and possibly the assumption of an elastic only mechanism we make use of a new high resolution dataset of ice elevation change that captures ice mass loss north of 66 s to first show that non linear uplift of the palmer cgps station since 2002 cannot be explained by elastic deformation alone we apply a viscoelastic model with linear maxwell rheology to predict uplift since 1995 and test the fit to the palmer cgps time series finding a well constrained upper mantle viscosity but less sensitivity to lithospheric thickness we further constrain the best fitting earth model by including six cgps stations deployed after 2009 the larissa network with vertical velocities in the range 1 7 to 14 9 mm yr this results in a best fitting earth model with lithospheric thickness of 100 140 km and upper mantle viscosity of 6 10 17 2 10 18 pa s much lower than previously suggested for this region combining the larissa time series with the palmer cgps time series offers a rare opportunity to study the time evolution of the low viscosity solid earth response to a well captured ice unloading event

geomorphological evidence and cosmogenic 10be 26al exposure ages for the last glacial maximum and deglaciation of the antarctic peninsula ice sheet this paper presents the first systematic attempt to map the last glacial maximum lgm configuration of the southern and central parts of the antarctic peninsula ice sheet and to determine the timing of onshore ice sheet retreat geomorphologic evidence shows that the lgm ice sheet expanded to form two ice domes in palmer land and merged with an expanded and thicker west antarctic ice sheet in the weddell sea ice from the antarctic peninsula merged with alexander island ice in george vi sound cosmogenic 10 be and 26 al data from 29 erratics on nunataks yield model ages between 7 2 ka and older than 1 ma the data set contains a high proportion of erratics with evidence of nuclide inheritance once these ages have been excluded the cosmogenic ages suggest that thinning of the west side of the antarctic peninsula ice sheet to near present configuration was almost complete by the early holocene these data combined with previously published 14 c data exclude the possibility that the west side of the antarctic peninsula ice sheet has been thinning throughout the holocene as has been demonstrated for some other sectors of the west antarctic ice sheet on the east side of the antarctic peninsula ice sheet thinning was under way prior to the early holocene but our data do not constrain the ice sheet behavior more recently than 7 2 ka

ocean tides in the weddell sea new observations on the filchner ronne and larsen c ice shelves and model validation 1 ocean tides under the large weddell sea ice shelves are among the least well observed on earth here we present new spatially extensive observations of the vertical tidal motion of the filchner ronne and larsen c ice shelves using global positioning system gps data spanning a few weeks to years we pay particular attention to the major tidal constituents m2 s2 o1 k1 as well as important grace aliasing periods k2 and s1 we compare the estimated constituents with recent global and regional tide models and find that no single model is the most accurate across all constituents or ice shelves the root sum square errors are 7 8 cm cats2008a and tpxo7 2 and 11 12 cm got4 7 and fes2004 with the energetic m2 rmse 4 8 cm and s2 4 5 cm generally dominating these statistics the fes2004 k1 is particularly inaccurate near the larsen c ice shelf with errors approaching 20 cm meaning that grace release 4 estimates of mass change in the northern antarctic peninsula will be biased we find tidal energy at 3 4 5 6 and weakly at 7 cycles per day at all of our sites the largest amplitudes within these bands are at m4 mo3 and sp3 and approach 30 mm although significant spatial variations exist we show that they generally do not appear to originate in areas of reduced water column in ice shelf grounding zones comparing model estimates with our m4 ms4 and mn4 values shows that models do not accurately represent these terms