Evidence for a Highly Dynamic West Antarctic Ice Sheet During the Pliocene
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-28-2021
Journal / Book Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Abstract
Major ice loss in the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is hypothesized to have triggered ice sheet collapses during past warm periods such as those in the Pliocene. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 379 recovered continuous late Miocene to Holocene sediments from a sediment drift on the continental rise, allowing assessment of sedimentation processes in response to climate cycles and trends since the late Miocene. Via seismic correlation to the shelf, we interpret massive prograding sequences that extended the outer shelf by 80 km during the Pliocene through frequent advances of grounded ice. Buried grounding zone wedges indicate prolonged periods of ice-sheet retreat, or even collapse, during an extended mid-Pliocene warm period from ∼4.2–3.2 Ma inferred from Expedition 379 records. These results indicate that the WAIS was highly dynamic during the Pliocene and major retreat events may have occurred along the Amundsen Sea margin.
DOI
10.1029/2021GL093103
Journal ISSN / Book ISBN
85112368519 (Scopus)
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Gohl, Karsten; Uenzelmann-Neben, Gabriele; Gille-Petzoldt, Johanna; Hillenbrand, Claus Dieter; Klages, Johann P.; Bohaty, Steven M.; Passchier, Sandra; Frederichs, Thomas; Wellner, Julia S.; Lamb, Rachel; Leitchenkov, German; Klaus, A.; Kulhanek, D.; Bauersachs, T.; Courtillat, M.; Cowan, E.; De Lira Mota, M.; Esteves, M.; Fegyveresi, J.; Gao, L.; Halberstadt, A.; Horikawa, K.; Iwai, M.; Kim, J.; King, T.; Penkrot, M.; Prebble, J.; Rahaman, W.; Reinardy, B.; Renaudie, J.; Robinson, D.; Scherer, R.; and Siddoway, C., "Evidence for a Highly Dynamic West Antarctic Ice Sheet During the Pliocene" (2021). Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 673.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/earth-environ-studies-facpubs/673