Articles | Volume 14, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2303-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2303-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
22 Jul 2020
Research article |
| 22 Jul 2020
| 22 Jul 2020
Repeated ice streaming on the northwest Greenland continental shelf since the onset of the Middle Pleistocene Transition
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of
Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast, University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK
Mads Huuse
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of
Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Paul C. Knutz
Department of Geophysics, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350, Copenhagen, Denmark
David R. Cox
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of
Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
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Related subject area
Discipline: Ice sheets | Subject: Paleo-Glaciology (including Former Ice Reconstructions)
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Antarctic permafrost processes and antiphase dynamics of cold-based glaciers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys inferred from 10Be and 26Al cosmogenic nuclides
Simulating the Laurentide Ice Sheet of the Last Glacial Maximum
Reversible ice sheet thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment during the Late Holocene
The collapse of the Cordilleran–Laurentide ice saddle and early opening of the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories, Canada, constrained by 10Be exposure dating
A model for interaction between conduits and surrounding hydraulically connected distributed drainage based on geomorphological evidence from Keewatin, Canada
Nonlinear response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to late Quaternary sea level and climate forcing
Eemian Greenland ice sheet simulated with a higher-order model shows strong sensitivity to surface mass balance forcing
The impact of model resolution on the simulated Holocene retreat of the southwestern Greenland ice sheet using the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM)
Marine ice sheet instability and ice shelf buttressing of the Minch Ice Stream, northwest Scotland
Persistent tracers of historic ice flow in glacial stratigraphy near Kamb Ice Stream, West Antarctica
West Antarctic sites for subglacial drilling to test for past ice-sheet collapse
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The Cryosphere, 18, 1889–1909, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1889-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1889-2024, 2024
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Our results indicate millennial-scale oscillations of the last Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS) in northern Poland between ~19000 and ~17000 years ago. Combined luminescence (OSL) and 10Be dating show the last FIS left basal tills of three ice re-advances at a millennial-scale cycle: 19.2 ± 1.1 ka, 17.8 ± 0.5 ka and 16.9 ± 0.5 ka. This is the first terrestrial record of millennial-scale palaeo-ice margin oscillations at the southern fringe of the FIS during the last glacial cycle.
Gustav Jungdal-Olesen, Jane Lund Andersen, Andreas Born, and Vivi Kathrine Pedersen
The Cryosphere, 18, 1517–1532, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1517-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-1517-2024, 2024
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We explore how the shape of the land and underwater features in Scandinavia affected the former Scandinavian ice sheet over time. Using a computer model, we simulate how the ice sheet evolved during different stages of landscape development. We discovered that early glaciations were limited in size by underwater landforms, but as these changed, the ice sheet expanded more rapidly. Our findings highlight the importance of considering landscape changes when studying ice-sheet history.
Jacob T. H. Anderson, Toshiyuki Fujioka, David Fink, Alan J. Hidy, Gary S. Wilson, Klaus Wilcken, Andrey Abramov, and Nikita Demidov
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Antarctic permafrost processes are not widely studied or understood in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Our data show that near-surface permafrost sediments were deposited ~180 000 years ago in Pearse Valley, while in lower Wright Valley sediments are either vertically mixed after deposition or were deposited < 25 000 years ago. Our data also record Taylor Glacier retreat from Pearse Valley ~65 000–74 000 years ago and support antiphase dynamics between alpine glaciers and sea ice in the Ross Sea.
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The Cryosphere, 17, 2139–2156, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2139-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2139-2023, 2023
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We have reconstructed the Laurentide Ice Sheet, located in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum (21 000 years ago). The absence of direct measurements raises a number of uncertainties. Here we study the impact of different physical laws that describe the friction as the ice slides over its base. We found that the Laurentide Ice Sheet is closest to prior reconstructions when the basal friction takes into account whether the base is frozen or thawed during its motion.
Greg Balco, Nathan Brown, Keir Nichols, Ryan A. Venturelli, Jonathan Adams, Scott Braddock, Seth Campbell, Brent Goehring, Joanne S. Johnson, Dylan H. Rood, Klaus Wilcken, Brenda Hall, and John Woodward
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Samples of bedrock recovered from below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet show that part of the ice sheet was thinner several thousand years ago than it is now and subsequently thickened. This is important because of concern that present ice thinning in this region may lead to rapid, irreversible sea level rise. The past episode of thinning at this site that took place in a similar, although not identical, climate was not irreversible; however, reversal required at least 3000 years to complete.
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The Laurentide Ice Sheet was the largest ice sheet to grow and disappear in the Northern Hemisphere during the last glaciation. In northwestern Canada, it covered the Mackenzie Valley, blocking the migration of fauna and early humans between North America and Beringia and altering the drainage systems. We reconstruct the timing of ice sheet retreat in this region and the implications for the migration of early humans into North America, the drainage of glacial lakes, and past sea level rise.
Emma L. M. Lewington, Stephen J. Livingstone, Chris D. Clark, Andrew J. Sole, and Robert D. Storrar
The Cryosphere, 14, 2949–2976, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2949-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2949-2020, 2020
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We map visible traces of subglacial meltwater flow across Keewatin, Canada. Eskers are commonly observed to form within meltwater corridors up to a few kilometres wide, and we interpret different traces to have formed as part of the same integrated drainage system. In our proposed model, we suggest that eskers record the imprint of a central conduit while meltwater corridors represent the interaction with the surrounding distributed drainage system.
Michelle Tigchelaar, Axel Timmermann, Tobias Friedrich, Malte Heinemann, and David Pollard
The Cryosphere, 13, 2615–2631, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2615-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2615-2019, 2019
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The Antarctic Ice Sheet has expanded and retracted often in the past, but, so far, studies have not identified which environmental driver is most important: air temperature, snowfall, ocean conditions or global sea level. In a modeling study of 400 000 years of Antarctic Ice Sheet variability we isolated different drivers and found that no single driver dominates. Air temperature and sea level are most important and combine in a synergistic way, with important implications for future change.
Andreas Plach, Kerim H. Nisancioglu, Petra M. Langebroek, Andreas Born, and Sébastien Le clec'h
The Cryosphere, 13, 2133–2148, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2133-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2133-2019, 2019
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Meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) rises sea level and knowing how the GrIS behaved in the past will help to become better in predicting its future. Here, the evolution of the past GrIS is shown to be dominated by how much ice melts (a result of the prevailing climate) rather than how ice flow is represented in the simulations. Therefore, it is very important to know past climates accurately, in order to be able to simulate the evolution of the GrIS and its contribution to sea level.
Joshua K. Cuzzone, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Mathieu Morlighem, Eric Larour, Jason P. Briner, Helene Seroussi, and Lambert Caron
The Cryosphere, 13, 879–893, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-879-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-879-2019, 2019
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We present ice sheet modeling results of ice retreat over southwestern Greenland during the last 12 000 years, and we also test the impact that model horizontal resolution has on differences in the simulated spatial retreat and its associated rate. Results indicate that model resolution plays a minor role in simulated retreat in areas where bed topography is not complex but plays an important role in areas where bed topography is complex (such as fjords).
Niall Gandy, Lauren J. Gregoire, Jeremy C. Ely, Christopher D. Clark, David M. Hodgson, Victoria Lee, Tom Bradwell, and Ruza F. Ivanovic
The Cryosphere, 12, 3635–3651, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3635-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3635-2018, 2018
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We use the deglaciation of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet as a valuable case to examine the processes of contemporary ice sheet change, using an ice sheet model to simulate the Minch Ice Stream. We find that ice shelves were a control on retreat and that the Minch Ice Stream was vulnerable to the same marine mechanisms which threaten the future of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This demonstrates the importance of marine processes when projecting the future of our contemporary ice sheets.
Nicholas Holschuh, Knut Christianson, Howard Conway, Robert W. Jacobel, and Brian C. Welch
The Cryosphere, 12, 2821–2829, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2821-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2821-2018, 2018
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Models of the Antarctic Sheet are tuned using observations of historic ice-sheet behavior, but we have few observations that tell us how inland ice behaved over the last few millennia. A 2 km tall volcano sitting under the ice sheet has left a record in the ice as it flows by, and that feature provides unique insight into the regional ice-flow history. It indicates that observed, rapid changes in West Antarctica flow dynamics have not affected the continental interior over the last 5700 years.
Perry Spector, John Stone, David Pollard, Trevor Hillebrand, Cameron Lewis, and Joel Gombiner
The Cryosphere, 12, 2741–2757, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2741-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2741-2018, 2018
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Cosmogenic-nuclide analyses in bedrock recovered from below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet have the potential to establish whether and when large-scale deglaciation occurred in the past. Here we (i) discuss the criteria and considerations for subglacial drill sites, (ii) evaluate candidate sites in West Antarctica, and (iii) describe reconnaissance at three West Antarctic sites, focusing on the Pirrit Hills, which we present as a case study of site selection on the scale of an individual nunatak.
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Short summary
Seismic reflection data offshore northwest Greenland reveal buried landforms that have been interpreted as mega-scale glacial lineations (MSGLs). These have been formed by ancient ice streams that advanced hundreds of kilometres across the continental shelf. The stratigraphy and available chronology show that the MSGLs are confined to separate stratigraphic units and were most likely formed during several glacial maxima after the onset of the Middle Pleistocene Transition at ~ 1.3 Ma.
Seismic reflection data offshore northwest Greenland reveal buried landforms that have been...
