We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
High mid-Holocene accumulation rates over West Antarctica inferred from a pervasive ice-penetrating radar reflector.
- Authors
Bodart, Julien A.; Bingham, Robert G.; Young, Duncan A.; MacGregor, Joseph A.; Ashmore, David W.; Quartini, Enrica; Hein, Andrew S.; Vaughan, David G.; Blankenship, Donald D.
- Abstract
Modelling the past and future evolution of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) to atmospheric and ocean forcing is challenged by the availability and quality of observed palaeo-boundary conditions. Key potential data for reconstructing past ice-sheet processes on large spatial scales are Internal Reflecting Horizons (IRHs) detected by Radio-Echo Sounding (RES) techniques. When isochronal and dated at ice cores, IRHs can be used to determine palaeo-accumulation rates and patterns. Using a spatially extensive IRH over Pine Island Glacier, Thwaites Glacier, Institute and Möller Ice Streams, and a local layer approximation model, we infer mid-Holocene accumulation rates over the slow-flowing parts of these catchments for the past ~5000 years. By comparing our results with modern climate reanalysis models and observational syntheses, we estimate that accumulation rates over the Amundsen-Weddell-Ross divide were on average 18% higher than modern rates during the mid-Holocene. However, no significant spatial changes in the accumulation pattern were observed. These higher mid-Holocene accumulation-rate estimates match previous palaeo-accumulation estimates from ice-core and targeted RES surveys over the ice divide, and also coincide with periods of grounding-line re-advance during the Holocene over the Weddell and Ross Sea sectors. Our results highlight the need for ice-sheet models to account for time-varying accumulation rates across the WAIS during the Holocene to provide better estimates of its contribution to past sea-level rise.
- Subjects
ANTARCTICA; ICE shelves; ANTARCTIC ice; ICE sheets; ICE cores; ICE streams; RADAR
- Publication
Cryosphere Discussions, 2022, p1
- ISSN
1994-0432
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5194/tc-2022-199