Abstract
The West Antarctic ice sheet is believed to be inherently unstable because much of it is grounded below sea level1–4. It has been suggested that the ice sheet has withdrawn from its late Wisconsin maximum position, grounded at the edge of the continental shelf, and is now undergoing collapse as a delayed response to the warming and sea-level rise of the Holocene5, and that the ice sheet is likely to collapse shortly in response to rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere6. We present here some geomorphological evidence from Alexander Island and the Antarctic Peninsula which does not agree with either hypothesis. Rather, following deglaciation from the Wisconsin maximum, there was less ice than at present around 8,000 yr ago. The ice shelf in George VI Sound has built up subsequently.
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Sugden, D., Clapperton, C. West Antarctic ice sheet fluctuations in the Antarctic Peninsula area. Nature 286, 378–381 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/286378a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/286378a0
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