Initiation of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and estimates of total Antarctic ice volume in the earliest Oligocene

Wilson, D.S.; Pollard, D.; DeConto, R.; Jamieson, S.S.R.; Luyendyk, B.P.

Abstract

Reconstructions of Antarctic paleotopography for the late Eocene suggest that glacial erosion and thermal subsidence have lowered West Antarctic elevations considerably since then, with Antarctic land area having decreased ~20%. A new climate-ice sheet model based on these reconstructions shows that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet first formed at the Eocene-Oligocene transition (33.8–33.5 Ma, E-O) in concert with the continental-scale expansion of the East Antarctica Ice Sheet and that the total volume of East and West Antarctic ice (33.4–35.9 × 106 km3) was >1.4 times greater than previously assumed. This larger modeled ice volume is consistent with a modest cooling of 1–2°C in the deep ocean during the E-O transition, lower than other estimates of ~3°C cooling, and suggests the possibility of substantial ice in the Antarctic interior before the Eocene-Oligocene boundary.

Citation

Wilson, D., Pollard, D., DeConto, R., Jamieson, S., & Luyendyk, B. (2013). Initiation of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and estimates of total Antarctic ice volume in the earliest Oligocene. Geophysical Research Letters, 40(16), 4305-4309. https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50797

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jul 30, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 9, 2014
• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Print ISSN: 0094-8276
• Electronic ISSN: 1944-8007
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 40
• Issue: 16
• Pages: 4305-4309
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50797
• Keywords: Antarctic, Ice sheet, Oligocene.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1449439