Bentley, M. J., Ocofaigh, C., Anderson, J. B., Conway, H., Davies, B., Graham, A. G. C., Hillenbrand, C. D., Hodgson, D. A., Jamieson, S. S. R., Larter, R. D., Mackintosh, A., Smith, J. A., Verleyen, E., Ackert, R. P., Bart, P. J., Berg, S., Brunstein, D., Canals, M., Colhoun, E. A., Crosta, X., Dickens, W. A., Domack, E., Dowdeswell, J. A., Dunbar, R., Ehrmann, W., Evans, J., Favier, V., Fink, D., Fogwill, C. J., Glasser, N. F., Gohl, K., Golledge, N. R., Goodwin, I., Gore, D. B., Greenwood, S. L., Hall, B. L., Hall, K., Hedding, D. W., Hein, A. S., Hocking, E. P., Jakobsson, M., Johnson, J. S., Jomelli, V., Jones, R. S., Klages, J. P., Kristoffersen, Y., Kuhn, G., Leventer, A., Licht, K., Lilly, K., Lindow, J., Livingstone, S. J., Mass?, G., McGlone, M. S., McKay, R. M., Melles, M., Miura, H., Mulvaney, R., Nel, W., Nitsche, F. O., O'Brien, P. E., Post, A. L., Roberts, S. J., Saunders, K. M., Selkirk, P. M., Simms, A. R., Spiegel, C., Stolldorf, T. D., Sugden, D. E., van der Putten, N., van Ommen, T., Verfaillie, D., Vyverman, W., Wagner, B., White, D. A., Witus, A. E. Zwartz, D. (2014). A community-based geological reconstruction of Antarctic Ice Sheet deglaciation since the Last Glacial Maximum. Quaternary Science Reviews, 100, 1-9.A robust understanding of Antarctic Ice Sheet deglacial history since the Last Glacial Maximum is important in order to constrain ice sheet and glacial-isostatic adjustment models, and to explore the forcing mechanisms responsible for ice sheet retreat. Such understanding can be derived from a broad range of geological and glaciological datasets and recent decades have seen an upsurge in such data gathering around the continent and Sub-Antarctic islands. Here, we report a new synthesis of those datasets, based on an accompanying series of reviews of the geological data, organised by sector. We present a series of timeslice maps for 20 ka, 15 ka, 10 ka and 5 ka, including grounding line position and ice sheet thickness changes, along with a clear assessment of levels of confidence. The reconstruction shows that the Antarctic Ice sheet did not everywhere reach the continental shelf edge at its maximum, that initial retreat was asynchronous, and that the spatial pattern of deglaciation was highly variable, particularly on the inner shelf. The deglacial reconstruction is consistent with a moderate overall excess ice volume and with a relatively small Antarctic contribution to meltwater pulse la. We discuss key areas of uncertainty both around the continent and by time interval, and we highlight potential priorities for future work. The synthesis is intended to be a resource for the modelling and glacial geological community. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.publishersversionPeer reviewe
14The West Antarctic Rift System is one of the largest continental rifts on Earth. Because it is obscured 15 by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, its evolution is still poorly understood. Here we present the first low-16 temperature thermochronology data from eastern Marie Byrd Land, an area that stretches ~1000 km 17 along the rift system, in order to shed light on its development. Furthermore, we petrographically 18 analysed glacially transported detritus deposited in the marine realm, offshore Marie Byrd Land, to 19 augment the data available from the limited terrestrial exposures. Our data provide information about 20 the subglacial geology, and the tectonic and morphologic history of the rift system. Dominant 21 lithologies of coastal Marie Byrd Land are igneous rocks that intruded (presumably early Paleozoic) 22 low-grade meta-sedimentary rocks. No evidence was found for un-metamorphosed sedimentary rocks 23 exposed beneath the ice. According to the thermochronology data, rifting occurred in two episodes. 24
West Antarctica experienced a complex tectonic history, which is still poorly documented, in part due to extensive ice cover. Here we reconstruct the Cretaceous to present thermotectonic history of Pine Island Bay area and its adjacent coasts, based on a combination of apatite and zircon fission track and apatite (U‐Th‐Sm)/He thermochronology. In addition, we report petrographic information for the catchments of Pine Island, Thurston Island, and Thwaites glaciers. Our data suggest that the underlying bedrock of the Pine Island and Thwaites Glacier catchments are very different and vary from granitoids to (Cenozoic?) volcanogenic sequences and low‐grade metamorphics. Our thermochronology data show that the upper crustal rocks of Pine Island Bay experienced very rapid cooling during the late Cretaceous. We attribute this rapid cooling of basement rocks and associated reduction in mean elevation to tectonic denudation driven by gravitational collapse of the Cretaceous orogen along the proto‐Pacific Gondwana margin. Rapid Cretaceous crustal cooling was followed by very slow cooling during the Cenozoic, with no erosional response—within the limits of thermochronological methods—to the onset of glaciation and subsequent climatic changes. Cenozoic rifting within the West Antarctic Rift appears to have had little effect on erosion processes around Pine Island Bay; instead, our data suggest Cenozoic crustal tilting toward Pine Island Trough, a major geomorphic feature previously suggested to be a branch of the rift system.
a b s t r a c tThe Amundsen Sea Embayment of West Antarctica hosts one of the most rapidly changing sectors of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. With the fastest-flowing ice streams in Antarctica, the region around Pine Island Bay is characterized by rapid ice-sheet thinning and grounding-line retreat. Published surfaceexposure data are limited to a few isolated nunataks making it difficult to assess the long-term deglacial history of the area. To address this, we correlate existing records of lateral ice-stream retreat from marine sediment cores with onshore glacial thinning in two key areas of eastern Marie Byrd Land: the Kohler Range and Pine Island Bay. Our 10 Be surface-exposure ages are the first from the isolated Kohler Range and show that the nunataks there became ice-free between 8.6 and 12.6 ka. This implies a minimum long-term average thinning rate of 3.3 ± 0.3 cm/yr, which is one order of magnitude lower than recent rates based on satellite data. We also present pre-to early Holocene 10 Be surface-exposure ages from two islands located approximately 80 km downstream of the Pine Island Glacier ice-shelf front to constrain the lateral deglacial history in the Pine Island Bay area. This study provides insight into the significance of local ice sheet variations and suggests that the post-LGM history in the Amundsen Sea sector was characterized by glacial thinning as well as lateral retreat in pre-to early Holocene times.
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