Lake highstands in the Pensacola Mountains and Shackleton Range 4300-2250 cal. yr BP: Evidence of a warm climate anomaly in the interior of Antarctica

Hodgson, D.A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3841-3746; Bentley, M.J.. 2013 Lake highstands in the Pensacola Mountains and Shackleton Range 4300-2250 cal. yr BP: Evidence of a warm climate anomaly in the interior of Antarctica. The Holocene, 23 (3). 388-397. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683612460790

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract/Summary

We surveyed and dated the former shorelines of one lake in the Shackleton Range and two lakes in the Pensacola Mountains, situated inland of the Weddell Sea embayment Antarctica between 80° and 85°S. These are amongst the highest latitude lakes in the Antarctic and are located in areas where there is little or no Holocene climate and hydrological information. Surveys of the lake shorelines show that past water levels have been up to 15.7, 17.7 and 69.5 m higher than present in the three study lakes. AMS radiocarbon dating of lake-derived macrofossils showed that there was a sustained period of higher water levels from approximately 4300 and until sometime after 2250 cal. yr BP. This is interpreted as being the result of an increased number of meltwater events and/or degree-days above freezing, relative to the present. The closest comparable ice cores from the Dominion Range in the Transantarctic Mountains (85°S, 166°E) and the Plateau Remote ice core on the continental East Antarctic Ice Sheet (84°S, 43°E) also provide some evidence of a warmer period beginning at c. 4000–3500 yr BP and ending after 2000–1500 yr BP, as does a synthesis of oxygen isotope data from five Antarctic ice cores. This suggests that the well-documented mid- to late-Holocene warm period, measured in many lake and marine sediments around the coast of Antarctica, extended into these regions of the continental interior.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683612460790
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Polar Science for Planet Earth (2009 - ) > Chemistry and Past Climate
ISSN:	0959-6836
Additional Keywords:	Antarctic, climate change, glacier melt, Holocene, lake water levels, palaeohyfrology, Polar South, Shackleton Range, Transantarctic Mountains, warm climate anomaly
NORA Subject Terms:	Hydrology
Date made live:	30 Apr 2013 13:27 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/501697

Actions (login required)

View Item

Document Downloads

More statistics for this item...