Abstract
The Ross Ice Shelf is widely believed to be a Holocene feature, that is, during the late Pleistocene the inland (grounded) ice sheet extended out nearly to the continental shelf break in the Ross Sea, and retreated to its present position between 5,000 and 10,000 yr BP. If so, and if the grounded ice sheet remained in that position for at least 10,000 yr, then a sea floor uplift of the order of 100 m is still to be expected in the grid western part of the Ross Ice Shelf. Even for a smaller and more ephemeral extension of the grounded ice, the uplift would still be several tens of metres. Recently reported measurements indicate that there are extensive areas near the present grounding line where the water layer beneath the ice shelf is thin enough so that uplift would lead to a grounding line advance of at least 100 km. As the sea floor depth generally increases towards the grid east, however, the maximum extent would not be past the middle of the present Ross Ice Shelf.
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Greischar, L., Bentley, C. Isostatic equilibrium grounding line between the West Antarctic inland ice sheet and the Ross Ice Shelf. Nature 283, 651–654 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/283651a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/283651a0
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