Holocene Deglaciation of Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica

Stone, John O.; Balco, G.; Sugden, David E.; Caffee, Marc W.; Sass, Louis C.; Cowdery, Seth G.; Siddoway, C. S.

doi:10.1126/science.1077998

Cited by 254 publications

(206 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Bindschadler, 1998;Conway et al, 1999;Pudsey and Evans, 2001;Stone et al, 2003;Alley et al, 2005;Domack et al, 2005;Anderson, 2005, 2007;Bentley et al, 2006Bentley et al, , 2009Dowdeswell et al, 2008b;Johnson et al, 2008). Similarly, it is unclear if Antarctic deglaciation since the last glacial period has contributed to prominent global meltwater pulses (Clark et al, 2002;Licht, 2004;Peltier, 2005;Bassett et al, 2007).…”

Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sedimentary legacy of a palaeo-ice stream on the shelf of the southern Bellingshausen Sea: Clues to West Antarctic glacial history during the Late Quaternary

Hillenbrand

Larter

Dowdeswell

et al. 2010

Quaternary Science Reviews

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a b s t r a c tA major trough ("Belgica Trough") eroded by a palaeo-ice stream crosses the continental shelf of the southern Bellingshausen Sea (West Antarctica) and is associated with a trough mouth fan ("Belgica TMF") on the adjacent continental slope. Previous marine geophysical and geological studies investigated the bathymetry and geomorphology of Belgica Trough and Belgica TMF, erosional and depositional processes associated with bedform formation, and the temporal and spatial changes in clay mineral provenance of subglacial and glaciomarine sediments.Here, we present multi-proxy data from sediment cores recovered from the shelf and uppermost slope in the southern Bellingshausen Sea and reconstruct the ice-sheet history since the last glacial maximum (LGM) in this poorly studied area of West Antarctica. We combined new data (physical properties, sedimentary structures, geochemical and grain-size data) with published data (shear strength, clay mineral assemblages) to refine a previous facies classification for the sediments. The multi-proxy approach allowed us to distinguish four main facies types and to assign them to the following depositional settings: 1) subglacial, 2) proximal grounding-line, 3) distal sub-ice shelf/sub-sea ice, and 4) seasonal open-marine. In the seasonal open-marine facies we found evidence for episodic currentinduced winnowing of near-seabed sediments on the middle to outer shelf and at the uppermost slope during the late Holocene.In addition, we obtained data on excess 210 Pb activity at three core sites and 44 AMS 14 C dates from the acid-insoluble fraction of organic matter (AIO) and calcareous (micro-) fossils, respectively, at 12 sites. These chronological data enabled us to reconstruct, for the first time, the timing of the last advance and retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet (APIS) in the southern Bellingshausen Sea. We used the down-core variability in sediment provenance inferred from clay mineral changes to identify the most reliable AIO 14 C ages for ice-sheet retreat. The palaeo-ice stream advanced through Belgica Trough after w36.0 corrected 14 C ka before present (B.P.). It retreated from the outer shelf at w25.5 ka B.P., the middle shelf at w19.8 ka B.P., the inner shelf in Eltanin Bay at w12.3 ka B.P., and the inner shelf in Ronne Entrance at w6.3 ka B.P. The retreat of the WAIS and APIS occurred slowly and stepwise, and may still be in progress. This dynamical ice-sheet behaviour has to be taken into account for the interpretation of recent and the prediction of future mass-balance changes in the study area. The glacial history of the southern Bellingshausen Sea is unique when compared to other regions in West Antarctica, but some open questions regarding its chronology need to be addressed by future work.

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Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sedimentary legacy of a palaeo-ice stream on the shelf of the southern Bellingshausen Sea: Clues to West Antarctic glacial history during the Late Quaternary

Hillenbrand

Larter

Dowdeswell

et al. 2010

Quaternary Science Reviews

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“…For western Marie Byrd Land (i.e. 1000 km away from the Amundsen Sea sector), Stone et al (2003) showed that thinning continued throughout the Holocene at a similar rate. Johnson et al (2008) reported surface exposure ages of 14.5 ± 1.2 ka (700 m) and 11.7 ± 1.2 ka (630 m) for eastern Marie Byrd Land (Turtle Rock, next to Mt.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stone et al, 2003;Mackintosh et al, 2007) in the Amundsen Sea Embayment. Cruise ANT-XXVI/3 of research vessel Polarstern provided the opportunity for a helicopter supported onshore sampling campaign in Pine Island Bay and the Kohler Range.…”

Section: Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are also indications that the groundingline had already retreated close to its present-day position by the early Holocene . In contrast, terrestrial studies of deglaciation of coastal Marie Byrd Land are lacking: the only existing studies are those of Stone et al (2003) and Johnson et al (2008), who used surface-exposure dating to determine onshore post-LGM ice-sheet evolution in the this area. Both studies obtained similar average thinning rates for the early to late Holocene (2.5e9 cm/yr).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Glacial retreat in the Amundsen Sea sector, West Antarctica – first cosmogenic evidence from central Pine Island Bay and the Kohler Range

Lindow

Castex

Wittmann

et al. 2014

Quaternary Science Reviews

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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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“…Several recent studies have focussed on constraining the extent and thickness of extant ice sheets in Greenland (Roberts et al, 2008;Briner et al, 2014;Young et al, 2013) and Antarctica (Stone et al, 2003;Bentley et al, 2010;Mackintosh et al, 2011) since the LGM.…”

Section: Cosmogenic Datingmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the reconstruction of palaeo-ice sheets: Recent advances and future challenges

Stokes

Tarasov

Blomdin

et al. 2015

Quaternary Science Reviews

145

104

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Holocene Deglaciation of Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica

Cited by 254 publications

References 27 publications

The sedimentary legacy of a palaeo-ice stream on the shelf of the southern Bellingshausen Sea: Clues to West Antarctic glacial history during the Late Quaternary

The sedimentary legacy of a palaeo-ice stream on the shelf of the southern Bellingshausen Sea: Clues to West Antarctic glacial history during the Late Quaternary

Glacial retreat in the Amundsen Sea sector, West Antarctica – first cosmogenic evidence from central Pine Island Bay and the Kohler Range

On the reconstruction of palaeo-ice sheets: Recent advances and future challenges

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