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Antarctic ice dynamics in warm climates

A geological record reveals that the Aurora sector of the Antarctic Ice Sheet showed contrasting responses to past periods of atmospheric warmth. The findings might help to predict the ice sheet’s response to modern warming.
  1. Sarah Greenwood

    1. Sarah Greenwood is in the Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm 10691, Sweden.

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Some numerical models suggest1,2 that melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet will cause global sea level to rise by 3 metres or more by 2300. But such models differ in the exact magnitude of the rise, as well as in which parts of the ice sheet are likely to contribute and the mechanisms involved. One way of assessing how well models perform is to see whether they correctly ‘hindcast’ the ice sheet’s response to past changes — which requires independent geological evidence of what actually happened. On page 225, Gulick et al.3 present a record of sedimentation on the periphery of the Antarctic, beyond the Aurora sector that drains ice from the east of the continent. The record spans the whole period from ice-sheet inception to the present day, and reveals how the ice sheet has responded — or not — to warm climate periods in the past.

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Nature 552, 183-184 (2017)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-017-08285-3

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