Synchronous mid-Holocene marine and terrestrial deglaciation in the Ross Sea, Antarctica
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The Ross Ice Shelf buttresses ice draining from both East and West Antarctica and its collapse could accelerate the loss of inland ice sheets, rapidly raising sea level. Documenting the location, timing and rate of past glacial retreat can help reveal processes driving rapid mass loss, informing projections of ice sheet responses to a warming climate. Here, we present a record of mid-Holocene ice retreat from the southwestern Ross Sea using facies succession and paired ramped pyrolysis oxidation 14 C/ 210 Pb chronology. This record shows rapid ice shelf retreat from 6.9-5.4 cal kyr BP, coeval with thinning of adjacent outlet glaciers. Our findings reconcile earlier discrepancies in terrestrial and marine reconstructions, and indicate that synchronous grounding line retreat from west of Ross Island to the Siple Coast at ~7-6.2 cal kyr BP was likely driven by warm-water incursions, a process active in parts of Antarctica today.
Source: Nature Communications
Institutions: University of Exeter, University of Otago, University of Canterbury, Monash University, Korea Polar Research Institute, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, University of South Florida St. Petersburg, Earth Sciences New Zealand, Lincoln University, Victoria University of Wellington, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,990
OpenAlex ID: W4417503554