The impact of lateral variations in lithospheric thickness on glacial isostatic adjustment in West Antarctica

Nield, Grace; Whitehouse, Pippa L.; Wal, Wouter van der; Blank, Bas; O’Donnell, J. P.; Stuart, G. W.

doi:10.1093/gji/ggy158

Cited by 48 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The absence of Neogene fossils at Site 1 therefore implies deeper glacial erosion than at the other sites, with ongoing unroofing and removal of younger strata. Because Miocene and younger marine strata must have accumulated there during periods of reduced ice, the lack of young fossils implies significantly more uplift at Site 1 than the others; a conclusion consistent with tectonic interpretations (Whitehouse et al, 2019;Winberry & Anandakrishnan, 2004;Begeman et al, 2017;Nield et al, 2018;Barletta et al, 2018;Fisher et al, 2015;Spiegel et al, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Additionally, the Marie Byrd Land region has a higher uplift potential as a result of a thinner crust with a low viscosity, responsive mantle (Whitehouse et al, 2019) likely influenced by an inferred mantle plume (Winberry & Anandakrishnan, 2004;Begeman et al, 2017;Nield et al, 2018;Barletta et al, 2018;Fisher et al, 2015). Spiegel et al (2016) suggest the uplift arising from plume activity occurred~20 Ma.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paleogene Marine and Terrestrial Development of the West Antarctic Rift System

Coenen

Scherer

Baudoin

et al. 2020

Geophysical Research Letters

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Modeling the early development of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) hinges on the configuration and evolution of Paleogene terrestrial landscapes associated with the West Antarctic Rift System. A widely applied but previously untested paleotopographic reconstruction for the Eocene/Oligocene boundary suggests that much of central West Antarctica was as much as 1,000 m above sea level at that time, constituting a key nucleating site for an early WAIS. Here we show that Paleogene age marine and terrestrial microfossil assemblages and biomarkers in sediments recovered from beneath the WAIS provide direct evidence contrary to this widely utilized “maximum” paleotopographic reconstruction. These new constraints call for significantly modified tectonic and ice sheet model parameterization and also provide insights into modern differential uplift across the West Antarctic Rift System.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleogene Marine and Terrestrial Development of the West Antarctic Rift System

Coenen

Scherer

Baudoin

et al. 2020

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…It is also worthwhile to note that on time scales of decades the mantle primarily behaves elastically, perhaps with the exception at places where the tectonic history has brought heat, volatiles and changes in mineral structure, such as water or reduced grain size, into the region, thus reducing the effective viscosity to values below about 5 × 10 18 Pa s (e.g., Lange et al., 2014; Mitrovica et al, 2018;Nield et al, 2018). At such low values of viscosity in the upper mantle, stress relaxation can reduce both the effective influence of gravitational loading and the amplitude of fingerprints.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea-level fingerprints emergent from GRACE mission data

Adhikari¹,

Ivins²,

Frederikse³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission data set has an important, if not revolutionary, impact on how scientists quantify the water transport on the Earth's surface. The transport phenomena include land hydrology, physical oceanography, atmospheric moisture flux, and climate related changes to the cryosphere. The mass transport observed by the satellite system also includes solid Earth motions caused by, for example, great subduction zone earthquakes and glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) processes. When coupled with altimetry, this space gravimetry data provides a powerful framework for studying climate related changes on interdecadal time scales, such as ice mass loss and sea-level rise. As the changes in the latter are significant over the past two decades, there is a concomitant self-attraction and loading phenomenon generating ancillary changes in gravity, sea surface, and solid Earth deformation. These generate a finite signal in GRACE and ocean altimetry and it may often be desirable to isolate and remove them for the purpose of understanding, for example, ocean circulation changes and post-seismic viscoelastic mantle flow, or GIA, occurring beneath the sea floor. Here we provide a systematic calculation of sea-level fingerprints of continental (water) mass changes using monthly Release-06 GRACE Level-2 Stokes coefficients for the span April 2002 to August 2016 (Adhikari et al., 2019, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/8UC8IR), which result in a set of spherical harmonic coefficients for the time-varying geoid, sea surface, and vertical bedrock motion. A simple sum of the spectra yield monthly maps of the desired field and uncertainties therein. These may be applied for either study of the fields themselves or as fundamental filter components for the analysis of ocean circulation and earthquake related fields, or for improving ocean tide models.

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“…Kuchar and Milne, 2015). The thickness of this layer influences the wavelength of deformation (Nield et al, 2018), while the viscosity of the mantle controls the rate of deformation. It therefore follows that the rheological properties of the Earth may be inferred from observations ( Figure 1) that reflect land uplift or subsidence in response to ice and ocean load change (e.g.…”

Section: Representation Of the Solid Earthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nield et al, 2014), or lateral variations in Earth structure to be incorporated (e.g. Kaufmann et al, 2000;Kaufmann et al, 2005;Nield et al, 2018), while maintaining computational efficiency. A finite element approach is often used, and for domains up to the size of the former Fennoscandian ice sheet the sphericity of the Earth can be neglected (Wu and Johnston, 1998), allowing a 'flat-earth' approximation to be used.…”

Section: Modelling Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short Comment in response to Reviewer’s comments

Whitehouse¹

2018

Preprint

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Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) describes the response of the solid Earth, the gravitational field, and the oceans to the growth and decay of the global ice sheets. A commonly-studied component of GIA is 'postglacial rebound', which specifically relates to uplift of the land surface following ice melt. GIA is a relatively rapid process, triggering 100 m-scale changes in sea level and solid Earth deformation over just a few tens of thousands of years. Indeed, the first-order effects of GIA could already be quantified several hundred years ago without reliance on precise measurement techniques and scientists have been developing a unifying theory for the observations for over 200 years. Progress towards this goal required a number of significant breakthroughs to be made, including the recognition that ice sheets were once more extensive, the solid Earth changes shape over time, and gravity plays a central role in determining the pattern of sea-level change. This article describes the historical development of the field of GIA and provides an overview of the processes involved. Significant recent progress has been made as concepts associated with GIA have begun to be incorporated into parallel fields of research; these advances are discussed, along with the role that GIA is likely to play in addressing outstanding research questions within the field of Earth system modelling.

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The impact of lateral variations in lithospheric thickness on glacial isostatic adjustment in West Antarctica

Cited by 48 publications

References 67 publications

Paleogene Marine and Terrestrial Development of the West Antarctic Rift System

Paleogene Marine and Terrestrial Development of the West Antarctic Rift System

Sea-level fingerprints emergent from GRACE mission data

Short Comment in response to Reviewer’s comments

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