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Orbital forcing of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene

Nature Geoscience volume 7, pages 841–847 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Pliocene and Early Pleistocene, between 5.3 and 0.8 million years ago, span a transition from a global climate state that was 2–3 °C warmer than present with limited ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere to one that was characterized by continental-scale glaciations at both poles. Growth and decay of these ice sheets was paced by variations in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. However, the nature of the influence of orbital forcing on the ice sheets is unclear, particularly in light of the absence of a strong 20,000-year precession signal in geologic records of global ice volume and sea level. Here we present a record of the rate of accumulation of iceberg-rafted debris offshore from the East Antarctic ice sheet, adjacent to the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, between 4.3 and 2.2 million years ago. We infer that maximum iceberg debris accumulation is associated with the enhanced calving of icebergs during ice-sheet margin retreat. In the warmer part of the record, between 4.3 and 3.5 million years ago, spectral analyses show a dominant periodicity of about 40,000 years. Subsequently, the powers of the 100,000-year and 20,000-year signals strengthen. We suggest that, as the Southern Ocean cooled between 3.5 and 2.5 million years ago, the development of a perennial sea-ice field limited the oceanic forcing of the ice sheet. After this threshold was crossed, substantial retreat of the East Antarctic ice sheet occurred only during austral summer insolation maxima, as controlled by the precession cycle.

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Figure 1: Location of Site U1361 and bathymetry10 offshore of the Wilkes Land margin, Antarctica.
Figure 2: Depth series developed for IODP site U1361 sediment core between 4.4 and 2.2 Ma.
Figure 3: 2π MTM time–frequency analysis (500-kyr window) results.
Figure 4: Quantitative assessment of the evolution of power using the MTM time–frequency results.

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Acknowledgements

This research used samples and data provided by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). The IODP is sponsored by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and participating countries under the management of Joint Oceanographic Institutions. Financial support for this study was provided to T.N. and R.M. from the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund Contract VUW0903, and Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (RDF-13-VUW-003) to R.M. Additional support was provided by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Grant CTM-2011-24079) to C.E. and by MEXT to F.J.J-E., and by the US NSF (Grant OCE-1003603) to S.R.M. and US NSF (Grant OCE-1202632) to M.E.R.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand

    M. O. Patterson, R. McKay & T. Naish

  2. Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC—University of Granada, 18100 Armilla, Spain

    C. Escutia

  3. Department of Biogeochemistry, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, 237-0061, Japan

    F. J. Jimenez-Espejo & M. Yamane

  4. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, PO Box 1000, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, New York 10964, USA

    M. E. Raymo

  5. Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1215 W. Dayton St. Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA

    S. R. Meyers

  6. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California 92093-0220, USA

    L. Tauxe

  7. Marine Palynology and Paleoceanography, Laboratory of Paleobotany and Palynology, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD Utrecht, Netherlands

    H. Brinkhuis

  8. United States Implementing Organization, Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, Texas A&M University, 1000 Discovery Drive, College Station, Texas 77845, USA

    A. Klaus

  9. Institute for Applied Geophysics and Geothermal Energy, RWTH Aachen University, Mathieustrasse 6, D-52074 Aachen, Germany

    A. Fehr

  10. Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT, UK

    J. A. P. Bendle

  11. Department of Earth Sciences, Marine Palynology and Paleoceanography, Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Budapestlaan 4, 3584 CD, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    P. K. Bijl

  12. Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton, European Way, SO14 3ZH, Southampton, UK

    S. M. Bohaty

  13. Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, 1500 Illinois Street, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA

    S. A. Carr

  14. Department of Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University, 325 Braun Hall, Building 320, Stanford, California 94305-2115, USA

    R. B. Dunbar

  15. Department of Geology, Universidad de Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain

    J. A. Flores

  16. Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, CSIC-UGR, 18100 Armilla, Spain

    J. J. Gonzalez

  17. Department of Geology, Western Michigan University, 1187 Rood Hall, 1903 West Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008, USA

    T. G. Hayden

  18. Department of Natural Science, Kochi University, 2-5-1 Akebono-cho, Kochi 780-8520, Japan

    M. Iwai

  19. Geological Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, 30 Gajeong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-350, Republic of Korea

    K. Katsuki

  20. Petroleum and Marine Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, 30 Gajeong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-350, Republic of Korea

    G. S. Kong

  21. Education Department, Daito Bunka University, 1-9-1 Takashima-daira, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 175-8571, Japan

    M. Nakai

  22. Department of Geology, University of South Florida, Tampa, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, SCA 528, Tampa, Florida 33620, USA

    M. P. Olney

  23. Earth and Environmental Studies, Montclair State University, 252 Mallory Hall, 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey 07043, USA

    S. Passchier

  24. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Queens College, 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, New York 11367, USA

    S. F. Pekar

  25. Paleoenvironmental Dynamics Group, Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 234, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany

    J. Pross

  26. Departments of Geology and Marine Science, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand

    C. R. Riesselman

  27. MARUM—Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Leobener Straße, 28359 Bremen, Germany

    U. Röhl

  28. Department of Geology, Utsunomiya University, 350 Mine-Machi, Utsunomiya 321-8505, Japan

    T. Sakai

  29. Antarctica Division, Geological Survey of India, NH5P, NIT, Faridabad 121001, Haryana, India

    P. K. Shrivastava

  30. Evolution Applied Limited, 50 Mitchell Way, Upper Rissington, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL7 3SF, UK

    C. E. Stickley

  31. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0220, USA

    S. Sugasaki

  32. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

    S. Sugasaki

  33. State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China

    S. Tuo

  34. Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK

    T. van de Flierdt

  35. School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia

    K. Welsh

  36. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, New York 10964, USA

    T. Williams

Authors
  1. M. O. Patterson
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  2. R. McKay
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  3. T. Naish
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  4. C. Escutia
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  5. F. J. Jimenez-Espejo
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  6. M. E. Raymo
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  7. S. R. Meyers
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  9. H. Brinkhuis
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Consortia

IODP Expedition 318 Scientists

  • A. Klaus
  • , A. Fehr
  • , J. A. P. Bendle
  • , P. K. Bijl
  • , S. M. Bohaty
  • , S. A. Carr
  • , R. B. Dunbar
  • , J. A. Flores
  • , J. J. Gonzalez
  • , T. G. Hayden
  • , M. Iwai
  • , K. Katsuki
  • , G. S. Kong
  • , M. Nakai
  • , M. P. Olney
  • , S. Passchier
  • , S. F. Pekar
  • , J. Pross
  • , C. R. Riesselman
  • , U. Röhl
  • , T. Sakai
  • , P. K. Shrivastava
  • , C. E. Stickley
  • , S. Sugasaki
  • , S. Tuo
  • , T. van de Flierdt
  • , K. Welsh
  • , T. Williams
  •  & M. Yamane

Contributions

M.O.P., R.M. and T.N. designed the study, conducted sedimentological and time series analyses and wrote the paper. S.R.M. carried out time–frequency analysis and interpretations. C.E. and H.B. led IODP Expedition 318 and provide seismic reflection data interpretation. F.J.J-E. and C.E. analysed XRF geochemical data. L.T. led development of the age model. M.E.R. contributed to writing the manuscript. All authors contributed to the interpretations.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. McKay.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Patterson, M., McKay, R., Naish, T. et al. Orbital forcing of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. Nature Geosci 7, 841–847 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2273

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