The evolution of past global ice sheets is highly uncertain. One example is the missing ice problem during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 26 000-19 000 years before present) – an apparent 8-28 m discrepancy between far-field sea level indicators and modelled sea level from ice sheet reconstructions. In the absence of ice sheet reconstructions, researchers often use marine δ18O proxy records to infer ice volume prior to the LGM. We present a global ice sheet reconstruction for the past 80 000 years, called PaleoMIST 1.0, constructed independently of far-field sea level and δ18O proxy records. Our reconstruction is compatible with LGM far-field sea-level records without requiring extra ice volume, thus solving the missing ice problem. However, for Marine Isotope Stage 3 (57 000-29 000 years before present) - a pre-LGM period - our reconstruction does not match proxy-based sea level reconstructions, indicating the relationship between marine δ18O and sea level may be more complex than assumed.

Recent evidence shows that wind‐driven ocean currents, like the western boundary currents, are strongly affected by global warming. However, due to insufficient observations both on temporal and spatial scales, the impact of climate change on large‐scale ocean gyres is still not clear. Here, based on satellite observations of sea surface height and sea surface temperature, we find a consistent poleward shift of the major ocean gyres. Due to strong natural variability, most of the observed ocean gyre shifts are not statistically significant, implying that natural variations may contribute to the observed trends. However, climate model simulations forced with increasing greenhouse gases suggest that the observed shift is most likely to be a response of global warming. The displacement of ocean gyres, which is coupled with the poleward shift of extratropical atmospheric circulation, has broad impacts on ocean heat transport, regional sea level rise, and coastal ocean circulation.

[1] Late glacial sea level curves located in the Cascadia subduction zone (CSZ) fore arc in southwestern British Columbia show that glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) was rapid when the Cordilleran Ice Sheet collapsed in the late Pleistocene. GIA modeling with a linear Maxwell rheology indicates that the observations can be equally well fit across a wide range of asthenospheric thicknesses, provided that the asthenospheric viscosity is varied from 3 Â 10 18 Pa s for a thin (140 km) asthenosphere to 4 Â 10 19 Pa s for a thick (380 km) asthenosphere. Present-day vertical crustal motion predicted by the GIA models shows rates of a few tenths of a millimeter per year, consistent with previous analyses. The model viscosities largely pertain to the viscosity of the oceanic mantle beneath the subducting Juan de Fuca slab but include a contribution from the mantle wedge above the slab. For comparison, effective viscosities for the upper mantle due to the tectonic regime (subduction) were computed using the strain rates and temperatures of an independent geodynamic model of the CSZ with a wet olivine power law rheology. The effective viscosities agree well with GIA model viscosities of 10 19 Pa s or less, corresponding to an asthenosphere of 100 or 200 km thickness. The agreement suggests a significant role for power law flow in the GIA response. Regardless of the microphysical mechanisms responsible for the GIA response, the viscosity values inferred from GIA can be applied to studies of the megathrust earthquake cycle because both processes take place on comparable time scales.Citation: James, T. S., E. J. Gowan, I. Wada, and K. Wang (2009), Viscosity of the asthenosphere from glacial isostatic adjustment and subduction dynamics at the northern Cascadia subduction zone, British Columbia, Canada,

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The Asian monsoon (AM) played an important role in the dynastic history of China, yet it remains unknown whether AM-mediated shifts in Chinese societies affect earth surface processes to the point of exceeding natural variability. Here, we present a dust storm intensity record dating back to the first unified dynasty of China (the Qin Dynasty, 221–207 B.C.E.). Marked increases in dust storm activity coincided with unified dynasties with large populations during strong AM periods. By contrast, reduced dust storm activity corresponded to decreased population sizes and periods of civil unrest, which was co-eval with a weakened AM. The strengthened AM may have facilitated the development of Chinese civilizations, destabilizing the topsoil and thereby increasing the dust storm frequency. Beginning at least 2000 years ago, human activities might have started to overtake natural climatic variability as the dominant controls of dust storm activity in eastern China.

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An abundance of evidence indicates that the tropics are expanding. Despite many attempts to decipher the cause, the underlying dynamical mechanism driving tropical expansion is still not entirely clear. Here, based on observations, multimodel simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) and purposefully designed numerical experiments, the variations and trends of the tropical width are explored from a regional perspective. We find that the width of the tropics closely follows the displacement of oceanic midlatitude meridional temperature gradients (MMTG). Under global warming, as a first‐order response, the subtropical ocean experiences more surface warming because of the mean Ekman convergence of anomalously warm water. The enhanced subtropical warming, which is partially independent of natural climate oscillations, such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, leads to poleward advance of the MMTG and drives the tropical expansion. Our results, supported by both observations and model simulations, imply that global warming may have already significantly contributed to the ongoing tropical expansion, especially over the ocean‐dominant Southern Hemisphere.

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