Articles | Volume 20, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3977-2026
© Author(s) 2026. 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-20-3977-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Late Holocene stabilization of Conway Ice Ridge
Andrew O. Hoffman
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA
Paul T. Summers
Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Jenny Suckale
Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Knut Christianson
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Ginny Catania
Institute of Geophysics, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA
Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA
Howard Conway
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
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Michelle L. Maclennan, Jan T. M. Lenaerts, Christine A. Shields, Andrew O. Hoffman, Nander Wever, Megan Thompson-Munson, Andrew C. Winters, Erin C. Pettit, Theodore A. Scambos, and Jonathan D. Wille
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Atmospheric rivers are air masses that transport large amounts of moisture and heat towards the poles. Here, we use a combination of weather observations and models to quantify the amount of snowfall caused by atmospheric rivers in West Antarctica which is about 10 % of the total snowfall each year. We then examine a unique event that occurred in early February 2020, when three atmospheric rivers made landfall over West Antarctica in rapid succession, leading to heavy snowfall and surface melt.
Evan Carnahan, Ginny Catania, and Timothy C. Bartholomaus
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Sophie Goliber, Taryn Black, Ginny Catania, James M. Lea, Helene Olsen, Daniel Cheng, Suzanne Bevan, Anders Bjørk, Charlie Bunce, Stephen Brough, J. Rachel Carr, Tom Cowton, Alex Gardner, Dominik Fahrner, Emily Hill, Ian Joughin, Niels J. Korsgaard, Adrian Luckman, Twila Moon, Tavi Murray, Andrew Sole, Michael Wood, and Enze Zhang
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Terminus traces have been used to understand how Greenland's glaciers have changed over time; however, manual digitization is time-intensive, and a lack of coordination leads to duplication of efforts. We have compiled a dataset of over 39 000 terminus traces for 278 glaciers for scientific and machine learning applications. We also provide an overview of an updated version of the Google Earth Engine Digitization Tool (GEEDiT), which has been developed specifically for the Greenland Ice Sheet.
John Erich Christian, Alexander A. Robel, and Ginny Catania
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Marine-terminating glaciers have recently retreated dramatically, but the role of anthropogenic forcing remains uncertain. We use idealized model simulations to develop a framework for assessing the probability of rapid retreat in the context of natural climate variability. Our analyses show that century-scale anthropogenic trends can substantially increase the probability of retreats. This provides a roadmap for future work to formally assess the role of human activity in recent glacier change.
Daniel R. Shapero, Jessica A. Badgeley, Andrew O. Hoffman, and Ian R. Joughin
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 4593–4616, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4593-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4593-2021, 2021
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Trevor R. Hillebrand, John O. Stone, Michelle Koutnik, Courtney King, Howard Conway, Brenda Hall, Keir Nichols, Brent Goehring, and Mette K. Gillespie
The Cryosphere, 15, 3329–3354, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3329-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-3329-2021, 2021
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We present chronologies from Darwin and Hatherton glaciers to better constrain ice sheet retreat during the last deglaciation in the Ross Sector of Antarctica. We use a glacier flowband model and an ensemble of 3D ice sheet model simulations to show that (i) the whole glacier system likely thinned steadily from about 9–3 ka, and (ii) the grounding line likely reached the Darwin–Hatherton Glacier System at about 3 ka, which is ≥3.8 kyr later than was suggested by previous reconstructions.
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Hoffman, A. O., Christianson, K., Lai, C.-Y., Joughin, I., Holschuh, N., Case, E., Kingslake, J., and the GHOST science team: Inland migration of near-surface crevasses in the Amundsen Sea Sector, West Antarctica, The Cryosphere, 19, 1353–1372, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-1353-2025, 2025. a, b, c
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Short summary
In Antarctica, fast-flowing ice streams drive most ice loss. Radar data from Conway Ice Ridge reveal that the van der Veen and Mercer Ice Streams were wider ~3000 years ago and narrowed progressively. Numerical modeling demonstrates that small thickness changes can rapidly alter shear-margin locations. These findings offer crucial insights into Late Holocene Ice Sheet readvance.
In Antarctica, fast-flowing ice streams drive most ice loss. Radar data from Conway Ice Ridge...