Decadal-scale onset and termination of Antarctic ice-mass loss during the last deglaciation.

ABSTRACT: Emerging ice-sheet modeling suggests once initiated, retreat of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) can continue for centuries. Unfortunately, the short observational record cannot resolve the tipping points, rate of change, and timescale of responses. Iceberg-rafted debris data from Iceberg Alley identify eight retreat phases after the Last Glacial Maximum that each destabilized the AIS within a decade, contributing to global sea-level rise for centuries to a millennium, which subsequently re-stabilized equally rapidly. This dynamic response of the AIS is supported by (i) a West Antarctic blue ice record of ice-elevation drawdown >600 m during three such retreat events related to globally recognized deglacial meltwater pulses, (ii) step-wise retreat up to 400 km across the Ross Sea shelf, (iii)

SUBMITTER: Weber ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8602255 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature