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Long-term increase in Antarctic Ice Sheet vulnerability driven by bed topography evolution

Paxman, G.J.G.; Gasson, E.G.W.; Jamieson, S.S.R.; Bentley, M.J.; Ferraccioli, F.

Long-term increase in Antarctic Ice Sheet vulnerability driven by bed topography evolution Thumbnail


Authors

E.G.W. Gasson

F. Ferraccioli



Abstract

Ice sheet behavior is strongly influenced by the bed topography. However, the effect of the progressive temporal evolution of Antarctica's subglacial landscape on the sensitivity of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) to climatic and oceanic change has yet to be fully quantified. Here we investigate the evolving sensitivity of the AIS using a series of data‐constrained reconstructions of Antarctic paleotopography since glacial inception at the Eocene‐Oligocene transition. We use a numerical ice sheet model to subject the AIS to schematic climate and ocean warming experiments and find that bed topographic evolution causes a doubling in ice volume loss and equivalent global sea level rise. Glacial erosion is primarily responsible for enhanced ice sheet retreat via the development of increasingly low‐lying and reverse sloping beds over time, particularly within near‐coastal subglacial basins. We conclude that AIS sensitivity to climate and ocean forcing has been substantially amplified by long‐term landscape evolution.

Citation

Paxman, G., Gasson, E., Jamieson, S., Bentley, M., & Ferraccioli, F. (2020). Long-term increase in Antarctic Ice Sheet vulnerability driven by bed topography evolution. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(20), Article e2020GL090003. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl090003

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 30, 2020
Online Publication Date Oct 20, 2020
Publication Date 2020-10
Deposit Date Oct 1, 2020
Publicly Available Date Oct 27, 2020
Journal Geophysical Research Letters
Print ISSN 0094-8276
Electronic ISSN 1944-8007
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 47
Issue 20
Article Number e2020GL090003
DOI https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl090003
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1260593

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Published Journal Article (10.8 Mb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
©2020. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.






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