thickness and extent of the subglacial till layer beneath an antarctic paleo ice stream fast flowing ice streams and outlet glaciers currently account for as much as 90 of the discharge from the antarctic and greenland ice sheets although the deformation of subglacial material has been proposed as the mechanism for this rapid motion such sediment is usually hidden under several kilometers of ice marine geophysical records have allowed reconstruction of the three dimensional thickness of the sedimentary bed beneath a large antarctic paleo ice stream for the first time fast flow is indicated by streamlined seafloor lineations that form the surface of a layer of low shear strength unsorted sediment averaging 4 6 m thick rapid motion of the paleo ice stream was a result of subglacial deformation within this layer

cosmic ray labeling of erosion surfaces in situ nuclide production rates and erosion models a number of in situ cosmogenic radionuclides and stable nuclides have been measured in natural exposed rock surfaces with a view to study their in situ production and rock erosion rates 1 the in situ radionuclides can be used for a high resolution tomography of the erosional history of an exposed surface two stable nuclides 3he 21ne and five radionuclides 10be 26al 36cl 14c 39ar having half lives in the range of 300 1 5 106 yr half life are measurable in many rock types a prerequisite for the application of the in situ nuclides for the study of erosional histories of surfaces is a knowledge of their production rates under different irradiation conditions altitude latitude irradiation geometry and shielding relative nuclide production rates can be determined fairly accurately using the extensive available data on cosmic ray neutrons 2 absolute nuclide production rates cannot generally be predicted with any accuracy because of lack of data on excitation functions of nuclides unless some normalization is possible as was done in the case of several cosmic ray produced isotopes in the atmosphere 3 based on a recent natural calibration experiment in which erosion free surfaces exposed to cosmic radiation for 11 000 yrs were sampled the absolute production rates of 10be and 26al in quartz have been accurately estimated for mountain altitudes in sierra nevada 4 the absolute production rates of 10be and 26al in quartz can therefore be estimated fairly accurately for any given latitude and altitude some measurements of 14c in rocks of low erosion rate 5 similarly allow an estimate of its production rate attempts made to measure the in situ production rates of 3he in rocks have not yet led to a convergent production rate in view of the importance of knowing the production rates of isotopes of he ne and ar i present here theoretical estimates of their production rates based on available cross section data i discuss the information that can be extracted from the study of the in situ nuclides in rocks useful parameters characterizing the exposure history of a rock surface are 1 the effective surface exposure age and 2 the time averaged erosion rate the implications of these parameters for single and multiple nuclide studies are discussed in terms of the erosion models considered

five million year10be record in chinese loess and red clay climate and weathering relationships 10be measurements in bulk samples in different size fractions in selective chemically leached fractions of several representative loess paleosol sequences and in the underlying red clay sediments from the chinese loess plateau back to ca 5 ma were made using the ams accelerator mass spectrometer our data support but considerably extend the earlier studies of shen and beer and their colleagues in the upper 0 75 ma luochuan loess paleosol sequences the effect of climatic change is dramatically expressed by10be concentrations 1 in the red clay sediments for which we estimate model accumulation rates of 5 8 and 8 7 m ma 1 for the upper sequences in lingtai and baoji respectively 2 in the paleosols where soil maturation processes are manifest in the10be distribution within different size fractions accompanied by downward movement to zones of high authigenic mineral concentration and 3 in loess samples which at deposition had an appreciable endowment of10be from the dust source regions on the basis of leaching experiments we estimate that on average the paleosol layers lost about 3 3 of their initial10be content to the underlying layers by transport with water finally we estimate that the relative average zonal precipitation rate during glacial periods was 2 3 the average interglacial value the estimates of the initial10be concentrations and dust composition are consistent with the measured values for the recent atmospheric dust falls sampled from the loess plateau and the shandong peninsula

modeling the instantaneous response of glaciers after the collapse of the larsen b ice shelf following the disintegration of the larsen b ice shelf antarctic peninsula in 2002 regular surveillance of its 20 tributary glaciers has revealed a response which is varied and complex in both space and time the major outlets have accelerated and thinned smaller glaciers have shown little or no change and glaciers flowing into the remnant scar inlet ice shelf have responded with delay in this study we present the first area wide numerical analysis of glacier dynamics before and immediately after the collapse of the ice shelf combining new datasets and a state of the art numerical ice flow model we simulate the loss of buttressing at the grounding line and find a good qualitative agreement between modelled changes in glacier flow and observations through this study we seek to improve confidence in our numerical models and their ability to capture the complex mechanical coupling between floating ice shelves and grounded ice

cenozoic exhumation in the qilian shan northeastern tibetan plateau evidence from detrital fission track thermochronology in the jiuquan basin the india asia collision resulted in the cenozoic framework of faults ranges and tectonic basins and the high topography of the northeastern tibetan plateau but how and when these features formed remains poorly understood leading to conflicting tectonic models however information on the tectonic evolution of these active orogenic belts is well preserved in synorogenic basin sediments in this study we carefully analyze the detrital apatite fission track aft ages of cenozoic synorogenic sediments from the jiuquan basin to decipher the entire exhumation process of the adjacent qilian shan throughout the cenozoic our data indicate that initially rapid cenozoic exhumation occurred in the qilian shan during the late paleocene early eocene 60 50 ma almost synchronous with the india asia collision the qilian shan subsequently experienced long lived exhumation that continued until at least the middle miocene 45 10 ma during this period of exhumation in the qilian shan tectonic deformation occurred throughout the northeastern tibetan plateau the early cenozoic deformation in the northeastern tibetan plateau may have been caused by the transfer of tectonic stress from the distant india asia collision boundary through the complex lithospheric environment of the tibetan plateau the present tectonic configuration and topography of the qilian shan and the northeastern tibetan plateau likely became established since the middle miocene and after the long lived deformation began in the early cenozoic

selective glacial erosion and weathering zones in the coastal mountains of marie byrd land antarctica in the coastal mountains of marie byrd land antarctica there is a juxtaposition of ice moulded landforms at lower altitudes and upstanding summits with weathered surfaces bearing tors this paper uses geomorphological mapping and exposure dating to test two hypotheses commonly used to explain such a landscape contrast either the pattern reflects contrasts in glacial erosion related to the basal thermal regime beneath a former ice sheet or it represents a periglacial trimline marking the upper limit of ice cover during the last glacial maximum lgm cosmogenic nuclide measurements on erratics show that the mountains were covered by ice on several occasions most recently during the lgm similar measurements on bedrock show that fragile landforms on weathered surfaces survived many glaciations nuclide concentrations in bedrock indicate both that subglacial erosion is insignificant and that ice free periods of periglacial weathering are longer at higher elevations we conclude that the pattern of landscape modification reflects both topographically controlled contrasts in the basal thermal regime of overriding ice and the longer exposure to periglacial conditions at higher elevations in addition the combination of nuclide data and the wider pattern of striations shows that the lgm ice cover was thinner than predicted by ice sheet models assuming equilibrium conditions that ice sheet thinning has occurred from 10 400 years ago to the present and that regional flow by overriding ice has been replaced by radial ice flow from local glaciers centred on individual mountain massifs

a new extraction technique and production rate estimate for in situ cosmogenic 14c in quartz the potential of in situ cosmogenic 14c in situ 14c for surficial process studies is widely recognized yet a reliable means of isolating it has proved difficult to develop we present here a new method for extracting in situ 14c from quartz that overcomes difficulties encountered with earlier techniques yielding more reliable production rate estimates comparison of 14c thermal release patterns from surficial and deeply shielded quartz samples lifton 1997 demonstrated that contaminant 14c is released at or below 500 c and that 14c released between 500 and 1500 c is essentially all in situ produced the new technique builds on this key result using resistance heating of samples in the presence of a lithium metaborate libo2 flux and collection of all evolved carbon as co2 between 500 c and 1100 to 1200 c our improved method has four distinct advantages over other extraction methods 1 we can identify and quantitatively eliminate atmospheric organic 14c contamination 2 we can identify the in situ 14c component unambiguously without assumptions of 14co 14co2 production proportions within the rock or equilibria on extraction 3 in situ 14c is reliably extracted from quartz at lower temperatures and in less time than earlier methods and 4 blank 14c levels are consistently low 2 3 0 1 105 14c atoms 1 our new extraction procedures should thus enable researchers to use in situ 14c in diverse applications without reservation we developed our new procedures using samples of wave cut quartzite benches from the well dated bonneville 17 4 0 3 cal ky and provo 16 8 0 3 cal ky shorelines of pleistocene lake bonneville utah and from underlying deeply shielded locations in situ 14c was extracted from quartz separated from 2 bonneville shoreline samples 6 aliquots and 1 provo shoreline sample 2 aliquots results demonstrate that our new procedures can effectively isolate the in situ 14c fraction with replicate analytical precision better than 2 1 n 5 while remaining consistent with earlier results this level of precision and accuracy is comparable to or exceeds those currently obtainable with in situ cosmogenic 10be 26al 3he 21ne and 36cl resulting weighted mean in situ 14c site production rates for the bonneville and provo shorelines are 52 9 1 7 14c atoms g sio2 y and 48 7 2 8 14c atoms g sio2 y 1 respectively consistent with earlier production rate estimates current and previously published in situ 14c site production rate estimates were then scaled to sea level and high geomagnetic latitude using the latitude altitude scaling models of lal 1991 and dunai 2000 results indicate that both models yield sea level high latitude production rates consistent with independent estimates our new in situ 14c data yield integrated late quaternary production rate estimates at sea level and high latitude of 15 1 0 5 14c atoms g sio2 y using the lal 1991 model and 15 8 0 5 14c atoms g sio2 y with that of dunai 2000 until significant uncertainties in these models are addressed however we prefer the value from the widely used lal 1991 model as our best estimate of the integrated late quaternary production rate for in situ 14c

sedimentation associated with antarctic peninsula ice shelves implications for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of glacimarine sediments abstract recent disintegration of a number of antarctic peninsula ice shelves has given us a unique opportunity to investigate sub ice shelf sediments we characterize three sediment facies associations of two antarctic peninsula ice shelves larsen a and larsen inlet subglacial facies consist mainly of basal till diamicton with high shear strengths deposited under a grounded ice sheet progressive upward decrease in shear strength reflects a gradual decrease in the confining vertical effective pressure of grounded ice during till deposition proximal ice shelf glacimarine facies diamicton gravel rich and sand rich facies gravelly mud dropstone mud and sandy muds were deposited by sub ice shelf rain out bottom current activity and sediment gravity flows following decoupling of grounded ice from the sea floor distal ice shelf glacimarine and or open marine facies comprise terrigenous and diatom bearing bioturbated muds and gravelly muds that contain limited ice rafted debris these accumulated after recession of the grounding line to the coast with coarse grained surface sediments possibly documenting most recent ice shelf break up antarctic peninsula ice shelf sediments are more heterogeneous than ice shelf facies deposited elsewhere in antarctica cold polar antarctic ice shelves can be differentiated from temperate and sub polar marine terminated glacial sedimentary systems by the dominance of coarse grained proximal ice shelf glacimarine facies and an absence of subaqueous outwash meltwater sediment facies

common millennial scale variability of antarctic and southern ocean temperatures during the past 5000 years reconstructed from the epica dome c ice core measurements of the two water stable isotopes dd and d18o along epica european project for ice coring in antarctica dome c ice core are combined with simple isotopic modelling distillation models to reconstruct the variability of both the site temperature east antarctica and the moisture source temperature nowadays probably the subantarctic indian ocean we discuss the difference between the reconstructed site and source temperature pro les with respect to the initial isotopic data we show that i the early holocene optimum appears rst in antarctica and 800 years later in the southern ocean and ii during the last 5000 years the site and source temperatures co vary at the centennial timescale an 833 year periodicity is observed only on deuterium and site temperature and therefore probably of local origin

recent sea level contributions of the antarctic and greenland ice sheets after a century of polar exploration the past decade of satellite measurements has painted an altogether new picture of how earth s ice sheets are changing as global temperatures have risen so have rates of snowfall ice melting and glacier flow although the balance between these opposing processes has varied considerably on a regional scale data show that antarctica and greenland are each losing mass overall our best estimate of their combined imbalance is about 125 gigatons per year of ice enough to raise sea level by 0 35 millimeters per year this is only a modest contribution to the present rate of sea level rise of 3 0 millimeters per year however much of the loss from antarctica and greenland is the result of the flow of ice to the ocean from ice streams and glaciers which has accelerated over the past decade in both continents there are suspected triggers for the accelerated ice discharge surface and ocean warming respectively and over the course of the 21st century these processes could rapidly counteract the snowfall gains predicted by present coupled climate models

application of cosmogenic 10be to dating soils on the raised coral reef terraces of kikai island southwest japan 10be concentrations of six soils on the raised coral reef terraces of kikai island southwest japan range from 0 80 to 7 17 109 atoms g 1 the annual deposition rate of 10be from the atmosphere to kikai island from 2000 to 2002 ranges from 2 0 to 3 5 106 atoms cm 2 year 1 with a mean of 2 8 0 7 106 atoms cm 2 year 1 minimum absolute ages calculated from the inventory of meteoric 10be in the soils and the annual deposition rate of 10be are initial rendzina like soil 8 ka rendzina like soil 18 ka brown rendzina like soil 56 ka terra fusca like soil 127 ka terra rossa like soil 136 ka and intergrade between terra rossa like and red yellow soil 102 ka therefore it was concluded that soil formation during the first 60 000 years would be as rendzina like soils and more than 100 000 years would be required for red yellow soils to develop on raised coral reef terraces under subtropical humid climatic conditions

ice shelf history from petrographic and foraminiferal evidence northeast antarctic peninsula a detailed record of late pleistocene deglaciation followed by mid holocene ice shelf breakup and late holocene re growth is contained in continental shelf sediments in the northern larsen area northeast antarctic peninsula the zero age of core tops is confirmed by new and published 210pb profiles and 70 accelerator mass spectrometer ams 14c dates on bulk organic carbon define sedimentation rates of 7 6 92 cm ka the varied geology in the local ice drainage basins facilitates the use of ice rafted debris ird provenance in determining the presence or absence of ice shelves all inshore cores contain an interval of non local ird in the post glacial section demonstrating widespread ice shelf breakup in the mid holocene both breakup and re growth may have taken centuries and there are no widespread debris layers associated with breakup cores beyond and up to 30 km inside the historical ice shelf limit exhibit a varied ird provenance throughout the holocene suggesting the maximum ice shelf limit may date only from the little ice age benthic foraminiferal assemblages are related to water masses and position on the continental shelf and have been modified by taphonomic processes nevertheless we discern a deglaciation signal in prince gustav channel of a calcareous spike in predominantly agglutinated assemblages and this is repeated at the time of mid holocene ice shelf breakup the inferred mid holocene warm period occurred later in the northern larsen area than on the west coast of the antarctic peninsula

breakup of the larsen b ice shelf triggered by chain reaction drainage of supraglacial lakes this research is supported by the u s national science foundation under grant geop ant 0944248 awarded to d r m and grants ant 0838811 and arc 0934534 awarded to o v s

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

antarctic peninsula ice sheet evolution during the cenozoic era the antarctic peninsula region is currently undergoing rapid environmental change resulting in the thinning acceleration and recession of glaciers and the sequential collapse of ice shelves it is important to view these changes in the context of long term palaeoenvironmental complexity and to understand the key processes controlling ice sheet growth and recession in addition numerical ice sheet models require detailed geological data for tuning and testing therefore this paper systematically and holistically reviews published geological evidence for antarctic peninsula ice sheet variability for each key locality throughout the cenozoic and brings together the prevailing consensus of the extent character and behaviour of the glaciations of the antarctic peninsula region major contributions include a downloadable database of 186 terrestrial and marine calibrated dates an original reconstruction of the lgm ice sheet and a new series of isochrones detailing ice sheet retreat following the lgm glaciation of antarctica was initiated around the eocene oligocene transition in east antarctica palaeogene records of antarctic peninsula glaciation are primarily restricted to king george island where glacigenic sediments provide a record of early east antarctic glaciations but with modification of far travelled erratics by local south shetland island ice caps evidence for neogene glaciation is derived primarily from king george island and james ross island where glaciovolcanic strata indicate that ice thicknesses reached 500 850 m during glacials this suggests that the antarctic peninsula ice sheet draped rather than drowned the topography marine geophysical investigations indicate multiple ice sheet advances during this time seismic profiling of continental shelf slope deposits indicates up to ten large advances of the antarctic peninsula ice sheet during the early pleistocene when the ice sheet was dominated by 40 kyr cycles glacials became more pronounced reaching the continental shelf edge and of longer duration during the middle pleistocene during the late pleistocene repeated glacials reached the shelf edge but ice shelves inhibited iceberg rafting the last glacial maximum lgm occurred at 18 ka bp after which transitional glaciomarine sediments on the continental shelf indicate ice sheet retreat the continental shelf contains large bathymetric troughs which were repeatedly occupied by large ice streams during pleistocene glaciations retreat after the lgm was episodic in the weddell sea with multiple readvances and changes in ice flow direction but rapid in the bellingshausen sea the late holocene epoch was characterised by repeated fluctuations in palaeoenvironmental conditions with associated glacial readvances however this has been subsumed by rapid warming and ice shelf collapse during the twentieth century

accelerated ice discharge from the antarctic peninsula following the collapse of larsen b ice shelf acceleration exceeds 27 km 3 per year and ice is thinning at rates of tens of meters per year we attribute this abrupt evolution of the glaciers to the removal of the buttressing ice shelf the magnitude of the glacier changes illustrates the importance of ice shelves on ice sheet mass balance and contribution to sea level change index terms 1827 hydrology glaciology 1863 1863 hydrology snow and ice 1827 3349 meteorology and atmospheric dynamics polar meteorology 6924 radio science interferometry 9310 information related to geographic region antarctica citation rignot e g casassa p gogineni w krabill a rivera and r thomas 2004 accelerated ice discharge from the antarctic peninsula following the collapse of larsen b ice shelf geophys res lett 31 l18401 doi 10 1029 2004gl020697

ice sheet extent of the antarctic peninsula region during the last glacial maximum lgm insights from glacial geomorphology we present marine geological and geophysical data for the antarctic peninsula that call for a larger ice sheet reconstruction during the last glacial maximum lgm than suggested by previous studies such glacial reconstructions are important for quantifying post lgm sea level rise and providing boundary conditions for general circulation models megascale glacial lineations on the continental shelf surrounding antarctica provide documentation for grounded ice that was streaming swath bathymetry data nbp02 01 reveal lineations in each of the major glacial troughs except for smith trough which features grooves and bedrock drumlins 0 5 3 km spacing 1 20 elongation ratios on crystalline bedrock we place the maximum extent of ice at the seaward limit of the lineations at or near megascale glacial lineations imaged in this study and other areas surrounding antarctica including the ross sea pine island bay have a consistent morphology with elongation ratios of 80 1 and spacings of 200 600 m mode of 300 m in contrast lineations bundles canals et al 2000 in the gerlache boyd trough exhibit larger spacing 1 5 km and the upstream portions 7 km are carved directly into bedrock rather than till as suggested by previously unpublished air gun 120 hz seismic data these features have yet to be dated however they are believed to have been active during the lgm radiocarbon dates in glaciomarine sediments foraminifera and organic matter from seven glacial troughs indicate that megascale glacial lineations were formed during the lgm other geomorphic features such as the grounding zone wedge in the northwestern weddell sea formed when the ice sheet was retreating the initial retreat of the grounded ice from the outer shelf occurred by 18 500 cal yr b p the inner shelf was mostly ice free by 13 000 cal yr b p this is significantly earlier than numerical models which suggest antarctic deglaciation began at 12 000 cal yr b p this also suggests the peninsula area contributed to global sea level rise associated with meltwater pulse mwp 1a

late quaternary deglacial history across the larsen b embayment antarctica abstract we measured meteoric 10 be variation throughout a marine sediment core from the larsen b embayment lbe of the antarctic peninsula and collected in situ 10 be and 14 c exposure ages on terrestrial glacial deposits from the northern and southern margins of the lbe we use these data to reconstruct last glacial maximum lgm to present deglaciation and ice shelf change in the lbe core sedimentary facies and meteoric 10 be data show a monotonic progression from subglacial deposits to sub ice shelf deposits to open marine conditions indicating that its collapse in 2002 was unprecedented since the lgm exposure age data from the southern lbe indicate 40 m of ice surface lowering between 14 and 6 ka then little change between 6 ka and the 2002 collapse exposure age data from the northern lbe show a bimodal distribution in which clusters of apparent exposure ages in the ranges 4 9 5 1 ka and 1 0 2 0 ka coexist near 50 m elevation based on these results other published terrestrial and marine deglaciation ages and a compilation of sea bed imagery we suggest a north to south progression of deglaciation in the northeast antarctic peninsula in response to holocene atmospheric and oceanic warming we argue that local topography and ice configuration inherited from the lgm in addition to climate change are important in controlling the deglaciation history in this region

10be and 9be in marine sediments and their potential for dating using sequential leaching experiments we have measured the fraction of the cosmogenic isotope 10be half life 1 5 my and its stable isotope 9be co extracted with the following phases in marine sediments exchangeable calcium carbonate fe and mn oxyhydroxides organic opal and detrital the extraction of the authigenic phases typically release 70 of the 10be but only 40 of the 9be in order to test its potential for dating marine sediments we have measured the authigeniccally associated 10be 9be in 17 surface sediment samples from different ocean basins the observed spatial variability which appears to be influenced by proximity to continental input of 9be precludes the general and precise applications of leached 10be 9be for dating however the relatively constant value observed in surface sediments over large areas of the pacific indian and southern atlantic oceans shows considerable promise for approximate dating of open oceans sediments in order to test temporal variability a profile of the authigenically associated 10be 9be ratio has been measured in the independently dated central pacific core rc12 65 the observed variation in 10be 9be over the past nine my is approximately twice that expected on the basis of 10be decay alone several possible explanations for such behavior and their potential consequences for the use of leached 10be 9be for dating are discussed

volume of antarctic ice at the last glacial maximum and its impact on global sea level change abstract the volume of antarctic ice at the last glacial maximum is a key factor for calculating the past contribution of melting ice sheets to late pleistocene global sea level change at present there are large uncertainties in our knowledge of the extent and thickness of the formerly expanded antarctic ice sheets and in the timing of their release as meltwater into the world s oceans this paper reviews the four main approaches to determining former antarctic ice volume namely glacial geology glacio isostatic studies glaciological modelling and ice core analysis and attempts to reconcile these to give a best estimate for ice volume in the ross sea there was a major expansion of grounded ice at the last glacial maximum accounting for 2 3 3 2 m of global sea level at some time in the weddell sea a large grounded ice sheet corresponding to c 2 7 m of global sea level extended to the shelf break however this ice expansion has not yet been confidently dated and may not relate to the last glacial maximum around east antarctica there was thickening and advance offshore of ice in coastal regions ice core evidence suggests that the interior of east antarctica was either close to its present elevation or thinner during the last glacial so the effect of east antarctica on sea level depends on the net balance between marginal thickening and interior thinning suggested east antarctic contributions vary from a 3 5 5 m lowering to a 0 64 m rise in global sea level the antarctic peninsula ice sheet thickened and extended offshore at the last glacial maximum with a sea level equivalent contribution of c 1 7 m thus the antarctic ice sheets accounted for between 6 1 and 13 1 m of global sea level fall at the last glacial maximum this is substantially less than has been suggested by most previous studies but the maximum figure matches well with one modelling estimate the timing of antarctic deglaciation is not well known in the ross sea terrestrial evidence suggests deglaciation may have begun at c 13 000 yr bp 1 but that grounded ice persisted until c 6 500 yr bp marine evidence suggests the western ross sea was deglaciated by c 11 500 yr bp deglaciation of the weddell sea is poorly constrained grounded ice in the northern antarctic peninsula had retreated by c 13 000 yr bp and further south deglaciation occurred sometime prior to c 6 000 yr bp many parts of coastal east antarctica apparently escaped glaciation at the lgm but in those areas that were ice covered deglaciation was underway by 10 000 yr bp with existing data the timing of deglaciation shows no firm relation to northern hemisphere driven sea level rise this is probably due partly to lack of antarctic dating evidence but also to the combined influence of several forcing mechanisms acting during deglaciation

boundary condition of grounding lines prior to collapse larsen b ice shelf antarctica grounding zones where ice sheets transition between resting on bedrock to full floatation help regulate ice flow exposure of the sea floor by the 2002 larsen b ice shelf collapse allowed detailed morphologic mapping and sampling of the embayment sea floor marine geophysical data collected in 2006 reveal a large arcuate complex grounding zone sediment system at the front of crane fjord radiocarbon constrained chronologies from marine sediment cores indicate loss of ice contact with the bed at this site about 12 000 years ago previous studies and morphologic mapping of the fjord suggest that the crane glacier grounding zone was well within the fjord before 2002 and did not retreat further until after the ice shelf collapse this implies that the 2002 larsen b ice shelf collapse likely was a response to surface warming rather than to grounding zone instability strengthening the idea that surface processes controlled the disintegration of the larsen ice shelf

holocene climate and glacial history of the northeastern antarctic peninsula the marine sedimentary record from a long shaldril core abstract a high resolution record of holocene deglacial and climate history was obtained from a 77 m sediment core from the firth of tay antarctic peninsula as part of the shaldril initiative this study provides a detailed sedimentological record of holocene paleoclimate and glacial advance and retreat from the eastern side of the peninsula a robust chronostratigraphy was derived from thirty three radiocarbon dates on carbonate material this chronostratigraphic framework was used to establish the timing of glacial and climate events derived from multiple proxies including magnetic susceptibility electric resistivity porosity ice rafted debris content organic carbon content nitrogen content biogenic silica content and diatom and foraminiferal assemblages the core bottomed out in a stiff diamicton interpreted as till gravelly and sandy mud above the till is interpreted as proximal glaciomarine sediment that represents decoupling of the glacier from the seafloor circa 9400 cal yr bp and its subsequent landward retreat this was approximately 5000 yr later than in the bransfield basin and south shetland islands on the western side of the peninsula the firth of tay core site remained in a proximal glaciomarine setting until 8300 cal yr bp at which time significant glacial retreat took place deposition of diatomaceous glaciomarine sediments after 8300 cal yr bp indicates that an ice shelf has not existed in the area since this time the onset of seasonally open marine conditions between 7800 and 6000 cal yr bp followed the deglacial period and is interpreted as the mid holocene climatic optimum open marine conditions lasted until present with a minor cooling having occurred between 6000 and 4500 cal yr bp and a period of minor glacial retreat and or decreased sea ice coverage between 4500 and 3500 cal yr bp finally climatic cooling and variable sea ice cover occurred from 3500 cal yr bp to near present and it is interpreted as being part of the neoglacial the onset of the neoglacial appears to have occurred earlier in the firth of tay than on the western side of the antarctic peninsula the medieval warm period and little ice age were not pronounced in the firth of tay the breadth and synchroneity of the rapid regional warming and glacial retreat observed in the antarctic peninsula during the last century appear to be unprecedented during the holocene epoch

10be in chinese loess we report a first series of10be measurements on chinese loess covering the last 750 000 years the10be concentration shows a tendency to decrease with increasing grain size leaching experiments with acid solutions show that10be is strongly bound to particles and therefore mobility due to dissolution can be excluded the10be record in loess shows features similar to those observed in 180 records from deep sea sediments which strongly reflect climatic variations this allows one to correlate the10be loess records with 180 deep sea records and to establish a time scale based on this time scale accumulation rates of loess and10be fluxes can be calculated these reveal generally higher values for cold arid and windy periods than for warm humid and calmer intervals

erosion transport and segregation of pumice and lithic clasts in pyroclastic flows inferred from ignimbrite at lascar volcano chile abstract investigations have been made on the distribution of pumice and lithic clasts in the lithic rich soncor ignimbrite 26 5 ka and the 1993 pumice flow deposits of lascar volcano chile the soncor ignimbrite shows three main lithofacies which grade into one another coarse lithic breccias range from matrix poor stratified varieties irregular shaped sheets and elongate hummocks in proximal environments to breccia lenses with pumiceous ignimbrite matrix massive lithic rich facies comprise the bulk of the ignimbrite pumice rich facies are bimodal with abundant large pumice clasts often with reverse grading rare lithic clasts and occur distally and on high ground adjacent to deep proximal valleys in the 1993 pyroclastic flow deposits lithic rich facies are deposited on slopes up to 14 whereas pumice rich facies are deposited only on slopes

holocene southern ocean surface temperature variability west of the antarctic peninsula the antarctic peninsula is currently one of the fastest warming locations on earth but its long term variability has remained unclear amelia shevenell and colleagues now use the tex86 proxy a palaeothermometer that tracks membrane lipids of the marine picoplankton crenarchaeota to show that a long term cooling of about 4 c occurred in waters near the tip of antarctic peninsula over the past 12 000 years this is consistent with orbitally controlled changes in insolation shorter term variability in temperature seems to have been strongly influenced by the position of the westerly winds this work suggests that the present influence of the el nino southern oscillation system on the antarctic peninsula is a relatively recent phenomenon dating to the late holocene the antarctic peninsula is currently one of the fastest warming locations on earth but its long term variability has remained unclear this study uses tex86 sea surface temperature proxy evidence to show that a long term cooling of about 3 4 c occurred in waters near the tip of the antarctic peninsula over the past 12 000 years consistent with orbitally controlled changes in insolation shorter term variability in temperature at the antarctic peninsula appears to have been strongly influenced by the position of westerly winds the present influence of the el nino southern oscillation system on the antarctic peninsula may have arisen only during the late holocene the disintegration of ice shelves reduced sea ice and glacier extent and shifting ecological zones observed around antarctica1 2 highlight the impact of recent atmospheric3 and oceanic warming4 on the cryosphere observations1 2 and models5 6 suggest that oceanic and atmospheric temperature variations at antarctica s margins affect global cryosphere stability ocean circulation sea levels and carbon cycling in particular recent climate changes on the antarctic peninsula have been dramatic yet the holocene climate variability of this region is largely unknown limiting our ability to evaluate ongoing changes within the context of historical variability and underlying forcing mechanisms here we show that surface ocean temperatures at the continental margin of the western antarctic peninsula cooled by 3 4 c over the past 12 000 years tracking the holocene decline of local 65 s spring insolation our results based on tex86 sea surface temperature sst proxy evidence from a marine sediment core indicate the importance of regional summer duration as a driver of antarctic seasonal sea ice fluctuations7 on millennial timescales abrupt sst fluctuations of 2 4 c coincide with globally recognized climate variability8 similarities between our ssts southern hemisphere westerly wind reconstructions9 and el nino southern oscillation variability10 indicate that present climate teleconnections between the tropical pacific ocean and the western antarctic peninsula11 strengthened late in the holocene epoch we conclude that during the holocene southern ocean temperatures at the western antarctic peninsula margin were tied to changes in the position of the westerlies which have a critical role in global carbon cycling9 12

evidence for an early holocene climatic optimum in the antarctic deep ice core record in the interpretation of the antarctic deep ice core data little attention has been given to the holocene part of the records as far as translation of the stable isotope content in terms of temperature is concerned this can be understood because expected temperature changes may be obscured by isotopic noise of various origins and because no 14c dating has yet been available for this type of sequence in this article we focus on the dome c and vostok cores and on a new 850 m long ice core drilled out at komsomolskaia by the soviet antarctic expeditions these three sites are located in east antarctica on the antarctic plateau in a region essentially undisturbed by ice flow conditions so that their detailed intercomparison may allow us to identify the climatically significant isotopic signal our results compare well with the proximal records of southern hemisphere high latitudes and support the existence of a warmer climatic optimum between 10 and 6 ka y bp maximum temperatures are reached just at the end of the last deglaciation which confirms previous observations at high latitudes in contrast with later dates for the atlantic and hypsithermal optima in europe and north america

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

holocene climate variability in antarctica based on 11 ice core isotopic records a comparison is made of the holocene records obtained from water isotope measurements along 11 ice cores from coastal and central sites in east antarctica vostok dome b plateau remote komsomolskaia dome c taylor dome dominion range d47 km105 and law dome and west antarctica byrd with temporal resolution from 20 to 50 yr the long term trends possibly reflect local ice sheet elevation fluctuations superimposed on common climatic fluctuations all the records confirm the widespread antarctic early holocene optimum between 11 500 and 9000 yr in the ross sea sector a secondary optimum is identified between 7000 and 5000 yr whereas all eastern antarctic sites show a late optimum between 6000 and 3000 yr superimposed on the long time trend all the records exhibit 9 aperiodic millennial scale oscillations climatic optima show a reduced pacing between warm events typically 800 yr whereas cooler periods are associated with less frequent warm events pacing 1200 yr

stagnation of ice stream c west antarctica by water piracy the dynamic behavior of the west antarctic ice sheet is of interest because of the possibility that it may change and cause rapid sea level rise attention is focused on the fast moving and rapidly responding ice streams that drain the ice sheet one of these ice stream c largely stopped about a century ago and some models for this shutdown postulate negative feedbacks that would tend to stabilize the ice sheet here new data are presented indicating that the slowdown of the ice stream is restricted to its lower part and occurred because of loss of lubrication on localized sticky spots at the bed of the ice stream the increased friction probably arises from a topographic accident of the glacier bed that has directed lubricating water to the neighboring ice stream b together with slow drawdown of the ice sheet rather than from any general stabilizing feedbacks

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

holocene history of the larsen a ice shelf constrained by geomagnetic paleointensity dating a sedimentary record collected from beneath the former lar sen a ice shelf reveals the holocene history of the larsen a re gion the record begins with the transition from grounded ice to a floating ice shelf completed by 10 7 6 0 5 ka and ends with the modern recession the record contains several late holocene dia tomaceous ooze layers that suggest proximity to productive open water events radiocarbon ages obtained from these sediments were complicated by the presence of detrital and reworked carbon we have eliminated these complications and constructed a chro nology for the larsen a ice shelf history via tuning of the geo magnetic field paleointensity record with a reference curve this approach provides chronological control to sediment sequences that lack appropriate material for radiocarbon dating geomag netic paleointensity features with wavelengths of 2 3 k y can be recognized and interhemispherically correlated illustrating the po tential to use geomagnetic paleointensity variations as a global cor relation and dating tool at sub milankovitch time scales

mechanisms of holocene palaeoenvironmental change in the antarctic peninsula region the antarctic peninsula is one of the three fastest warming regions on earth here we review holocene proxy records of marine and terrestrial palaeoclimate in the region and discuss possible forcing mechanisms underlying past change with a specific focus on past warm periods our aim is to critically evaluate the mechanisms by which palaeoclimate changes might have occurred in order to provide a longer term context for assessing the drivers of recent warming two warm events are well recorded in the holocene palaeoclimate record namely the early holocene warm period and the mid holocene hypsithermal mhh whereas there are fewer proxy data for the mediaeval warm period mwp and the recent rapid regional rrr warming we show that the early holocene warm period and mhh might be explained by relatively abrupt shifts in position of the southern westerlies superimposed on slower solar insolation changes a key finding of our synthesis is that the marine and terrestrial records in the ap appear to show markedly different behaviour during the mhh this might be partly explained by contrasts in the seasonal insolation forcing between these records circumpolar deep water cdw has been implicated in several of the prominent changes through the holocene but there are still differences in interpretation of the proxy record that make its influence difficult to assess further work is required to investigate contrasts between marine and terrestrial proxy records east west contrasts in palaeoclimate the history of cdw to retrieve a long onshore high resolution record of the holocene and determine the role of sea ice in driving or modulating palaeoclimate change along with further efforts to study the proxy record of the rrr and the mwp

information on past solar activity and geomagnetism from 10 be in the camp century ice core a nearly continuous record of the concentration of 10be from ice core data is compared with the tree ring derived record for 14c over the same period and it is found that short term trends in these data sets provide a record of solar activity no definitive relationship between the long term trends and the geomagnetic dipole moment is found

exposure age record of holocene ice sheet and ice shelf change in the northeast antarctic peninsula abstract this paper describes glacial geologic observations and cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages from ice free areas adjacent to the sjogren boydell and drygalski glaciers of the northeast antarctic peninsula these provide a record of holocene glacier and ice shelf change in this region early holocene ice surface elevation near the present coastline was locally at least 500 m above present sea level but our observations do not constrain the maximum thickness of last glacial maximum lgm ice or the time at which it was attained the boundary between frozen based and wet based ice reached a maximum elevation of 100 150 m above present sea level the ice surface elevation decreased from 300 500 m elevation to near present sea level between 9 ka and ca 4 ka below 160 m elevation we observed a bimodal distribution of apparent exposure ages in which a population of glacially transported clasts with mid holocene exposure ages coexists with another that has exposure ages of 100 600 years we consider the most likely explanation for this to be i complete deglaciation of currently ice free areas which presumably required the absence of ice shelves at 3 5 4 5 ka followed by ii subsequent ice shelf formation and grounding line advance after ca 1 4 ka and iii complete re exposure of the sites after ice shelf breakup and glacier surface lowering in recent decades this explanation is consistent with marine sedimentary records indicating that ice shelves in the prince gustav channel and larsen a embayment were absent in the middle to late holocene and were re established within the last 2000 years

first survey of antarctic sub ice shelf sediments reveals mid holocene ice shelf retreat the retreat of five small antarctic peninsula ice shelves in the late 20th century has been related to regional possibly anthropogenic climate warming we use the record of ice rafted debris ird in cores to show that the prince gustav channel ice shelf also retreated in mid holocene time early and late holocene age sediments contain ird derived entirely from local ice drainage basins which fed the section of ice shelf covering each site core top and mid holocene 5 2 ka sediments include a wider variety of rock types recording the drift of far traveled icebergs which implies seasonally open water at the sites the period when the prince gustav ice shelf was absent corresponds to regional climate warming deduced from other paleoenvironmental records we infer that the recent decay cannot be viewed as an unequivocal indicator of anthropogenic climate perturbation