Author
Listed:
- Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand
(British Antarctic Survey, High Cross)
- James A. Smith
(British Antarctic Survey, High Cross)
- David A. Hodell
(Cambridge University)
- Mervyn Greaves
(Cambridge University)
- Christopher R. Poole
(University of Leicester
University College London)
- Sev Kender
(Camborne School of Mines
British Geological Survey)
- Mark Williams
(University of Leicester)
- Thorbjørn Joest Andersen
(Center for Permafrost (CENPERM), University of Copenhagen)
- Patrycja E. Jernas
(University of Tromsø — The Arctic University of Norway)
- Henry Elderfield
(Cambridge University)
- Johann P. Klages
(Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung)
- Stephen J. Roberts
(British Antarctic Survey, High Cross)
- Karsten Gohl
(Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung)
- Robert D. Larter
(British Antarctic Survey, High Cross)
- Gerhard Kuhn
(Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung)
Abstract
Glaciological and oceanographic observations coupled with numerical models show that warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) incursions onto the West Antarctic continental shelf cause melting of the undersides of floating ice shelves. Because these ice shelves buttress glaciers feeding into them, their ocean-induced thinning is driving Antarctic ice-sheet retreat today. Here we present a multi-proxy data based reconstruction of variability in CDW inflow to the Amundsen Sea sector, the most vulnerable part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, during the Holocene epoch (from 11.7 thousand years ago to the present). The chemical compositions of foraminifer shells and benthic foraminifer assemblages in marine sediments indicate that enhanced CDW upwelling, controlled by the latitudinal position of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds, forced deglaciation of this sector from at least 10,400 years ago until 7,500 years ago—when an ice-shelf collapse may have caused rapid ice-sheet thinning further upstream—and since the 1940s. These results increase confidence in the predictive capability of current ice-sheet models.
Suggested Citation
Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand & James A. Smith & David A. Hodell & Mervyn Greaves & Christopher R. Poole & Sev Kender & Mark Williams & Thorbjørn Joest Andersen & Patrycja E. Jernas & Henry Elderfield & Jo, 2017.
"West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat driven by Holocene warm water incursions,"
Nature, Nature, vol. 547(7661), pages 43-48, July.
Handle:
RePEc:nat:nature:v:547:y:2017:i:7661:d:10.1038_nature22995
DOI: 10.1038/nature22995
Download full text from publisher
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the
CitEc Project, subscribe to its
RSS feed for this item.
Cited by:
- Federica Donda & Michele Rebesco & Vedrana Kovacevic & Alessandro Silvano & Manuel Bensi & Laura Santis & Yair Rosenthal & Fiorenza Torricella & Luca Baradello & Davide Gei & Amy Leventer & Alix Post , 2024.
"Footprint of sustained poleward warm water flow within East Antarctic submarine canyons,"
Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
- Adam D. Sproson & Yusuke Yokoyama & Yosuke Miyairi & Takahiro Aze & Rebecca L. Totten, 2022.
"Holocene melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet driven by tropical Pacific warming,"
Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:547:y:2017:i:7661:d:10.1038_nature22995. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.