Holocene stability of the Amundsen-Weddell ice divide, West Antarctica

Ross, Neil, Siegert, Martin, Woodward, John, Smith, Andrew, Corr, Hugh, Bentley, Michael, Hindmarsh, Richard, King, Edward and Rivera, Andrés (2011) Holocene stability of the Amundsen-Weddell ice divide, West Antarctica. Geology, 39 (10). pp. 935-938. ISSN 0091-7613

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Abstract

We analyze Holocene ice flow using global positioning system and radio-echo sounding data acquired near the Amundsen-Weddell ice divide, between Pine Island Glacier and the Institute Ice Stream, West Antarctica. The data show that this part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) has maintained a stable ice fl ow regime and ice divide position for ~7000 yr. Independent glacial geological data, in support of this assertion, suggest that the interior of the WAIS west of the Ellsworth Mountains has thinned by only a few hundred meters since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and that the position of the ice divide may be recurrent over longer (more than 20 k.y., perhaps pre Quaternary) time scales. We suggest that basal topography constrains ice fl ow in this sector of the WAIS, making the ice divide relatively insensitive to perturbations around the margins of the ice sheet compared with other ice divides. Large-scale forcing measured elsewhere in the WAIS as major reorganizations of the ice sheet surface and fl owline pattern may be manifested only in simple vertical changes of the Amundsen-Weddell interior.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	F800 Physical and Terrestrial Geographical and Environmental Sciences
Department:	Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Geography and Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Helen Pattison
Date Deposited:	23 Apr 2012 09:50
Last Modified:	13 Oct 2019 00:31
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/6384

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