Regional sea-level highstand triggered Holocene ice sheet thinning across coastal Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica
Sugunuma, Yusuke; Kaneda, Heitaro; Mas e Braga, Martim; Ishiwa, Takeshige; Koyama, Takushi; Newall, Jennifer C.H.; Okuno, Jun'ichi; Obase, Takashi; Saito, Fuyuki; Rogozhina, Irina; Andersen, Jane Lund; Kawamata, Moto; Hirabayashi, Motohiro; Lifton, Nathaniel A.; Fredin, Ola; Harbor, Jonathan M.; Stroeven, Arjen P.; Abe-Ouchi, Ayako
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
View/ Open
Date
2022Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- Institutt for geografi [1023]
- Institutt for geovitenskap og petroleum [2527]
- Publikasjoner fra CRIStin - NTNU [37228]
Original version
Communications Earth & Environment. 2022, 3, . https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00599-zAbstract
The East Antarctic Ice Sheet stores a vast amount of freshwater, which makes it the single largest potential contributor to future sea-level rise. However, the lack of well-constrained geological records of past ice sheet changes impedes model validation, hampers mass balance estimates, and inhibits examination of ice loss mechanisms. Here we identify rapid ice-sheet thinning in coastal Dronning Maud Land from Early to Middle Holocene (9000–5000 years ago) using a deglacial chronology based on in situ cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dates from central Dronning Maud Land, in concert with numerical simulations of regional and continental ice-sheet evolution. Regional sea-level changes reproduced from our refined ice-load history show a highstand at 9000–8000 years ago. We propose that sea-level rise and a concomitant influx of warmer Circumpolar Deep Water triggered ice shelf breakup via the marine ice sheet instability mechanism, which led to rapid thinning of upstream coastal ice sheet sectors.