Direct Geologic Constraints on the Timing of Late Holocene Ice Thickening in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, Antarctica

Nichols, Keir A.; Adams, Jonathan R.; Brown, Katie; Creel, Roger C.; McKenzie, Marion A.; Venturelli, Ryan A.; Johnson, Joanne S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4537-4447; Hood, Dylan H.; Wilcken, Klaus; Woodward, John; Roberts, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3407-9127. 2024 Direct Geologic Constraints on the Timing of Late Holocene Ice Thickening in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters, 51 (24), e2024GL110350. 11, pp. 10.1029/2024GL110350

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Official URL: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.102...

Abstract/Summary

Constraining past West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) change helps validate numerical models simulating future ice sheet dynamics. Following rapid deglaciation during the mid-Holocene, ice near Thwaites Glacier was ∼35 m thinner than present; however, the timing of ice regrowth to its present configuration remains unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, we present cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages of cobbles from the surface of a moraine situated between Thwaites and Pope glaciers. We infer that the moraine formed and stabilized in the Late Holocene (∼1.4 ka) when a small glacier thickened. We also present a novel reconstruction of WAIS volume constrained by sea-level data, which demonstrates that moraine formation coincided with a large-scale WAIS readvance. Our new geologic constraints will help inform models of the solid Earth response to surface mass loading, improving our understanding of ice sheet dynamics in a vulnerable part of WAIS.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1029/2024GL110350
ISSN:	0094-8276
Additional Keywords:	glacial geology, Holocene, Thwaites glacier, readvance, geochronology, west Antarctic Ice Sheet
Date made live:	20 Dec 2024 10:16 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/537468

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1029/2024GL110350

ISSN:

0094-8276

Additional Keywords:

glacial geology, Holocene, Thwaites glacier, readvance, geochronology, west Antarctic Ice Sheet

Date made live:

20 Dec 2024 10:16 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/537468